Despite a ceasefire, hundreds of Palestinian children remain behind bars, held without charge in a system designed to break them.
GAZA — On May 10, 2023, Abdul Rahman Abdul Jameel was roused from deep slumber when Israeli soldiers raided his family house in Nablus, a town in the south of the occupied West Bank.
Abdul, just 17 then, was dragged out of bed by the marauding soldiers, who ransacked the house before detaining him.
But the pre-dawn raid was just the beginning of the horror that was to follow for the Palestinian youngster.
He was forced to walk for nearly three kilometres before being herded onto a bus and taken first to a military camp in Huwwara – a town in the occupied West Bank – and then to a military interrogation centre in Tel Aviv.
Among 69 women and 21 children released by Israel on January 20, 2025, in the first prisoner swap after the ceasefire Gaza ceasefire came into effect, Abdul Rahman clearly remembers the 44 days of solitary confinement in a tiny cell, where he suffered severe physical as well as psychological torture.
He was then moved to the notorious Megiddo Prison where, he says, “the real beatings started”.
“They just kept hitting (me) over and over,” Abdul Rahman tells TRT World in an exclusive interview a few days after his release from Israeli custody.
The beatings left him with a broken nose, a cracked skull, fractured ribs and battered hands and legs.
Abdul Rahman says he was among a group of twelve Palestinian detainees who were assaulted in the same room by Israeli officers.
“They cursed us, insulted our mothers and sisters, humiliated us, for nothing. We hadn’t done a thing.”
Ironically, Abdul Rahman’s release comes amid a renewed Israeli military assault on the occupied West Bank, in sharp contrast to the relative calm in Gaza after 15 months of a genocidal war in Gaza.
A pattern of abuse
Abdul Rahman’s story is also emblematic of hundreds of other Palestinian children detained by Israel before and after the October 7, 2023, cross-border attack by Hamas.
By the end of 2024, Israeli forces were holding a total of 320 Palestinian children in custody, most of them without access to legal support, according to Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.
Despite the beginning of the year having seen the release of some 23 Palestinian child prisoners as part of a negotiated exchange, Israeli authorities continue to conduct large-scale arrests, including of children, according to Defence for Children International Palestine.
Since the ceasefire was announced on January 19, 2025, Israeli forces have detained more than 230 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
The families of released child prisoners, many of whom exhibited signs of torture, were reportedly threatened by Israeli forces with repercussions if they spoke to the media, according to Defence for Children International Palestine (DCIP).
Abdul Rahman says the nightmarish memories of his days in detention continue to haunt him.
“Their treatment was horrible, horrible, even during my release,” Abdul Rahman recalls.
“I try to smile, but after two years in prison, they wouldn’t let me feel that moment properly,” he adds, recalling how, upon hearing of his release, he was ordered by Israeli soldiers to lower his head, shouted at, and threatened with a beating.
“Happiness never feels complete. Not when you know your brothers are still locked up inside.”
What next for detained minors?
Following the next exchange on February 11, Israel will have released a total of 583 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. But the number of children being detained continues to rise.
Israel remains the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military courts through a process called “administrative detention” that almost always begins the same way: a violent night raid.
Soldiers drag children from their beds, blindfold them, and shackle their hands behind their backs before taking them away, often at gunpoint.
In many cases, such as Abdul Rahman’s, the detainees themselves do not even know why they are being held.
Unlike standard criminal proceedings, children placed under administrative detention are never formally charged with an offence. Instead, the Israeli military justifies their detention on secret evidence it claims is only presented to a military judge, on vague grounds of “security threats”.
Administrative detention orders can last up to six months but are indefinitely renewable, which causes severe psychological distress as detainees wake up every day facing the possibility of yet another extension, never knowing when or if they will be released.
Because there are no formal charges, children cannot challenge the accusations against them or defend themselves in court.
For many parents, the nightmare extends beyond that moment. Months may pass without any information on where their child is being held, as Israel routinely transfers detainees to prisons inside its borders, a practice that violates international law.
Since October, 2023, Palestinian child detainees have reported a sharp rise in ill-treatment and torture, along with worsening prison conditions, according to the Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCIP).
The practice of administrative detention has been widely condemned by human rights organisations, UN bodies, and legal experts, yet it remains a central tool in Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territories.
C. TRT World
