Ahmad Manasra is free—but his case reflects Israel’s disturbing pattern for minor detainees

“Die, you son of a b****,” shouted a group of Israelis at 13-year-old Ahmad Manasra in 2015 as he lay on the ground—severely beaten, run over by an Israeli driver, and suffering from a fractured skull and internal bleeding.

Soon after the attack, Manasra was arrested. After nearly a decade of imprisonment, he was released last Thursday, April 10, 2025. He is 23 now.

The world remembers his case vividly after a video showing him bleeding on the ground and later being interrogated as a child went viral, garnering millions of views across social media at the time.

“The occupation targets children—our entire people are suffering under occupation, whether they are children, women, from the camps, prisoners, or families,” said Dr Mohammed Mustafa, Palestinian Foreign Minister, in an exclusive interview to TRT World at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

Although now free, Manasra suffers from schizophrenia and other mental health issues, according to a 2021 report by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, MSF).

Ahmad was held in isolation, which may have further contributed to the deterioration of his mental health.

 “The shocking ill-treatment of Ahmad Manasra and cruelty exhibited towards him by the Israeli prison authorities and the Israeli justice system is an illustration of broader patterns of abuse against Palestinian detainees, especially children,” according to Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“The current stage is the most difficult in the history of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. What the current Israeli government is doing—through restrictions, harassment, and violations of all humanitarian laws—has made life incredibly hard for Palestinian prisoners, whether children or adults. What is happening to them are crimes in every sense of the word,” said Faed Mustafa, the Palestinian ambassador to Ankara, in an exclusive interview with TRT World in Antalya.

On the day of Manasra’s release, his lawyer, Khaled Zabarqa, revealed that Israeli prison authorities released Ahmad “away from the Nafha Prison facility to prevent his family from receiving him, leaving him alone in an empty area.”

Ahmad was later found by a passerby in the Beersheba area of the southern Negev region, who contacted his family. They were able to reunite with him shortly afterward. Zabarqa confirmed that Ahmad has since been reunited with his parents.

Despite many requests, he was denied the chance to hug, kiss, or touch any of his family members since the age of fourteen. He once briefly touched his mother’s hand through a hole in the courtroom wall — other than that, he is now able to hug her for the first time in 9.5 years.

Detained, charged, and sentenced while still a minor, Manasra’s case has become a symbol of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children—and a broader pattern of actions that many human rights advocates argue violates international law and contradicts global human rights standards.

What happened in 2015?

Ahmad Manasra was charged with attempted murder in a controversial case, despite not having stabbed anyone—an accusation that rights groups say underscores Israel’s mistreatment of child detainees.

After the incident, Ahmad was left bleeding on the ground without immediate medical attention, lying next to the lifeless body of his 15-year-old cousin, Hassan Manasra. A graphic video showing Ahmad lying on the street, bleeding from his head while Israelis taunted him, went viral and garnered millions of views.

In 2015, Ahmad’s cousin, Hassan Manasra, allegedly stabbed two Israelis near the illegal settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev in East Jerusalem. Hassan was killed immediately, and Ahmad was severely beaten, later accused of “aiding the enemy during wartime.”

Ahmad’s interrogation video, which surfaced the same year, further fueled outrage.

In the footage, Ahmad is shown being treated harshly without legal representation or a guardian.

“I don’t remember anything. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I only saw myself on the camera and believed it. Take me to the doctor,” the 13-year-old repeatedly pleaded, crying during the interrogation.

A leaked video showed Israeli security personnel shouting at and insulting him as he became visibly distressed.

Initially sentenced to 12 years, Ahmad’s prison term was later reduced to 9 and a half years.

During his detention, Ahmad developed significant mental health issues, including paranoia and delusions, which led to severe sleep deprivation.

His family and lawyers attribute his psychological decline to Israel’s mistreatment, including being confined to a small cell for 23 hours a day.

Ahmad’s lawyer revealed that, due to the extreme conditions of his detention, he had attempted to harm himself.

His family reported that Ahmad was transferred to the psychiatric wing of various prisons every few months, where doctors administered injections to stabilise him.

Where were the international bodies?

Ahmad’s case has long been a focus of human rights groups.

In December 2021, an external doctor was finally allowed to visit Ahmad for the first time since his imprisonment.

The doctor from MSF issued a medical report stating that Ahmad suffers from schizophrenia.

Numerous local and international bodies, including the European Union and the United Nations, repeatedly called for his immediate release.

Despite the international outcry, appeals to Israel’s Supreme Court for his early release were consistently rejected. The court ruled that, regardless of his age or mental health condition, Ahmad was ineligible for release because of his conviction for “terrorism.”

Between Ahmad’s conviction and sentencing, Israeli law was amended to allow the prosecution of children as young as 12 in civilian courts for alleged “terrorist offenses,” a practice that has faced widespread international criticism.

Minors—mostly boys aged 12–17—come under the purview of Israeli military law, which deems them criminally responsible from the age of 12, contrary to international law, which recognises anyone under 18 as a child.

Annually, an estimated 500–700 Palestinian children, some as young as 12, are detained and face prosecution in the Israeli military court system.

Morayef condemned Israel in a statement and said, “Despite mounting calls for his release, Israeli authorities placed him under solitary confinement for nearly two years which significantly worsened his conditions. Solitary confinement longer than 15 days violates the prohibition of torture.”

Israeli systemic pattern

Since 1967, Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank have been subject to Israeli military law, making them the only minors in the world consistently prosecuted in military courts.
Remarkably, Israel is the only country systematically employing military court systems to prosecute children.

A rights group based in Palestine, Defense for Children International - Palestine (DCIP), has been documenting child detentions since 1991. Over the past two decades, DCIP says, approximately 13,000 Palestinian children have experienced detention, interrogation, prosecution, and imprisonment within the Israeli military system.

DCIP's data highlights that three-quarters of the children experienced some form of physical violence after arrest.

In 97 percent of cases, no parent was present during interrogation, as in Ahmad Manasra’s case, and two-thirds were not properly informed of their rights.

The statistics further reveal that 80 percent of children underwent strip searches, 42 percent were denied adequate food and water, and 31 percent were denied access to a toilet.

Another violation of the law occurs in contravention of Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a crucial document for human rights. This article guarantees the right to be free from torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

And yet, detained children report abuse from arrest to release, including binding, blindfolding, verbal abuse, and intimidation.

Lastly, 17-year-old Walid Ahmad from the West Bank, who had been held in an Israeli prison for six months without being charged, died after collapsing—likely due to a combination of starvation, extreme medical neglect, and abuse, as evidenced by his autopsy. 

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Source: TRT