The wounded Jerusalemite detainee Ahmed Manasra, 20, from Beit Hanina, north of occupied Jerusalem entered Wednesday, 12 October 2022  his 18th year behind the darkness of Israeli jails. 

On October 12, 2015, Israeli occupation forcses arrested Manasra at the age of 13 while he was wounded and shot dead his cousin Hassan on the same day.

After he had turned 14 years old in 2016, the Israeli occupation court accused Ahmed of participating in a stabbing operation against colonial Israeli settlers inside the ‘Psgat Ze’ev’  Israeli illegal settlement which is built on the lands of the villages of Hizma and Beit Hanina, according to the Jerusalemite Prisoners’ Families Committee. 

Palestinian child prisoner Ahmad Manasrah, 14, was sentenced by Israeli occupation courts to 12 years in Israeli prison as well as fines of 180,000 NIS. 

“Israeli occupation deliberately kept the child Ahmad Manasrah imprisoned inside a reform center until he reached the legal age for full sentencing under Israeli law, which is the age of 14 years” Palestinian lawyer Jamil Saadeh noted upon Ahmad’s conviction. 

Later, the Israeli occupation court reduced the sentence to nine and a half years and a fine of 180,000 NIS.

Manasrah has been held in solitary confinement since early November 2021 and his mental condition has deteriorated due to the harsh conditions of detention, the solitary confinement, and more tragically the isolation away from his family.

Despite Ahmad’s aggravated mental health conditions, the Israeli occupation court has rejected requests by Ahmad’s lawyers for his early release.

The psychological staff following up on Ahmad’s case found that he suffers from schizophrenia and confirmed the devastating impact of the harsh treatment he was subject to at a young age.

Ahmad is one of nearly 400 Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons. Palestinian children are routinely subject to torture and abuse under interrogation, solitary confinement during interrogation, beating and kicking by Israeli occupation troops, threats of sexual assault, and other forms of abuse.