Jerusalem (TIP): Israel on Thursday released Palestinian youth Ahmad Manasra, who was arrested at the age of 13, under horrific circumstances and was allegedly subjected to brutal torture and denied medical care in custody, leading to the development of serious mental illnesses, including schizophrenia.
Manasra was arrested at the age of 13, for being with his 15-year-old cousin Hassan Manasra, who allegedly stabbed two Israeli settlers near the illegal settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev in occupied East Jerusalem in 2015.
Hassan was shot dead by an Israeli settler while Ahmad was run over by a car, beaten and taunted by Israeli passers-by. A video showing Ahmad lying in the street, bleeding from the head and pleading for help while Israelis taunted him, garnered widespread attention.
Another video of Manasra undergoing harsh interrogation in Israeli custody also sparked outrage.
He was later convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison, despite not being directly involved in any crime. According to doctors, Manasara developed schizophrenia in solitary confinement and has repeatedly tried to harm himself.
Palestinian activists has accused Israel of subjecting Ahmed to harsh incarceration that led to serious and potentially permanent mental illness. His lawyer, Khaled Zabarqa, said he was released after completing his nine-and-a-half-year sentence.
Appeals to Israel’s Supreme Court for his early release were repeatedly denied. The courts ruled that he was ineligible, regardless of age or mental condition, because he was “convicted of terrorism.”
Zarbarqa said he did not have immediate information about Manasra’s condition after his release, but said he was with his parents.
“We know in jail he’s been very ill. We’re waiting to know his health situation now,” Zabarqa said.
Authorities first moved Manasra to isolation in November 2021, following a scuffle with another inmate. In interviews the following year, his family and lawyers said he was locked in a small cell for 23 hours a day and suffered from paranoia and delusions that kept him from sleeping. His lawyer said Manasra had tried to slit his wrists.
His family said he was transferred to the psychiatric wing of another prison every few months, where doctors gave him injections to stabilize him. A physician who was allowed to visit him when he was 18 diagnosed him with schizophrenia and attributed it to the toll of being in prison, warning that continued incarceration could lead to permanent disability.
Rights groups say conditions inside Israeli prisons have become far more harsh since the beginning of Israel’s recent genocidal war on Gaza. Palestinian prisoners released during a recent ceasefire often appeared gaunt and ill, and many went straight to local hospitals for treatment.
A teenager from the occupied West Bank who was held in an Israeli prison for six months without being charged died last month after collapsing in unclear circumstances, becoming the first Palestinian under 18 to die in Israeli detention.
Several Palestinain detainees were released by Israel today, according to Al Jazeera. At least ten of them were in poor health and have been hospitalised at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir el-Balah.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s health ministry on Thursday issued an urgent plea for medicine, stating Israel’s more than a month-long blockade of the Strip has left hospitals with ‘dangerous’ and ‘unprecedented’ low stocks.
At least 35 Palestinains were killed on Wednesday, in Israel’s latest attack on the Shujayea district in northern Gaza City. At least 55 Palestinians were wounded in the attack while another 80 remain missing.
Israel has so far killed at least 1,523 people and wounded another 3,834 after it broke a ceasefire with the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on March 18, 2025. (With inputs from AP)