Palestinian child prisoner Osama Zeidat was again not brought to Israeli military court on Sunday, 13 November. Osama, 14, was shot in the back and the foot by Israeli occupation soldiers on 23 September and accused of trying to attack settlers in the Kiryat Arba colonial settlement in Al-Khalil. Osama was the only person injured and severely as he was shot in the back by occupation forces.
Osama, from the village of Bani Naim near al-Khalil, as held in Shaare Tzedek hospital for 18 days for treatment; he could not receive family visits for this entire time. On 1 November, he was brought to military court shackled to a hospital bed. On Sunday, Israeli jailers stated that there was no ambulance available to transport Osama.
Osama’s lawyer from the Palestinian Prisoners Society said that he filed an appeal against the Israeli decision to imprison the boy until the end of his trial. Osama’s mother noted that officials had previously said he would be brought in a wheelchair rather than in a hospital bed this time. The military court was postponed again until 21 November.
In related news, the Palestinian Prisoners Society reported that the health situation of fellow wounded child prisoner, Anas Zaid, 15, had stabilized after the boy was shot on Thursday, 10 November by Israeli occupation forces. Anas is also held in the Shaare Tzedek hospital; he was shot in the right foot, groin, and left hand by the Israeli occupation army near the Atara military camp. Anas spoke to his lawyer, Karim Ajwa, who said that he was going to Deir Ammar to visit relatives when Israeli soldiers began repressing Palestinian demonstrators near the military base and the soldiers opened fire on him.
There are nearly 400 Palestinian child prisoners held in Israeli prisons, including 13 minor girls and several children imprisoned under administrative detention, held without charge or trial. Defence for Children International Palestine has reported that Palestinian children routinely face beatings, solitary confinement, interrogation without parents or a lawyer, threats of sexual violence and psychological torture during their arrest and interrogation by Israeli occupation forces; many of these child prisoners arrested in pre-dawn violent military raids on their family homes.
