Palestinian child prisoners raided, searched and denied needed study tools

ubaidaHeavily armed “special units” of Israeli occupation prison guards raided the child prisoners’ (referred to as “Cubs” by Palestinian prisoners’ organizations) wing in Hasharon prison, searching and ransacking 5 rooms (1, 3, 5, 16, and 11) for several hours on Sunday, August 24. This unit is for Palestinian teens held in occupation prisons.

Child prisoners were handcuffed and strip-searched by these heavily armed forces; the youth refused to strip naked and the prisoners’ representative was brought in, and the children were searched wearing their underwear.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society noted that there are 37 youth, mostly from Jerusalem, held in Hasharon prison in difficult conditions. They are routinely denied visits with their relatives and family on the grounds of “security.” Fawaz Shallouda, a lawyer with PPS, said that the child prisoners face poor food quality and quantity, which was made worse with recent cuts in the amount of food. He noted that many kinds of fruits and vegetables had not been seen by the children since their arrest.

He noted that child prisoners are facing delays in receiving medical care. Ahmad Mashaal, 15, from Qalqilya, is suffering from anemia and needs periodic blood tests, however, these tests are not administered by the prison clinic.

The education of child prisoners is being severely disrupted; they are allowed only to study Arabic language and mathematics, however, they are prohibited from having calculators or graphing calculators and are allowed only pencils and rulers.

The child prisoners currently held in Hasharon are:

  1. Mahmoud Abu Khudeir
  2. Mahmoud Abu Teir
  3. Malik Abu Teir
  4. Mohammed Abu Teir
  5. Majid Abu Teir
  6. Khaled Abu Khdeir
  7. Nassim Abu Maria
  8. Khalil Abu Sanad
  9. Yahya Abu Riyala
  10. Mohammed Abu Ni’aa
  11. Fayez Beitouni
  12. Hussein Jawadreh
  13. Noureddine Zaghal
  14. Samer Hamdan
  15. Mamoun Tawil
  16. Saad Mansour
  17. Ahmed Meshaal
  18. Fathi Majadeh
  19. Wael Sabaneh
  20. Ubeida Asaid
  21. Mohammad Abbassi
  22. Ayman Abbasi
  23. Majdi Abbasi
  24. Shadi Abdullah
  25. Anwar Obeid
  26. Yazan Atallah
  27. Mohammed Alkom
  28. Maher Erekat
  29. Mohammed Farawi
  30. Mohammed Faraoun
  31. Jihad Sufi
  32. Yazan Kiswani
  33. Firas Kiswani
  34. Samir Shbeita
  35. Mohammed Abu Teir
  36. Wissam Aruri
  37. Mohammed al-Haddrah