Trauma of a teenage prisoner: Ahmad Manasra's ordeal goes on despite release from Israeli jail

Lawyers reveal Palestinian youth's cat-and-mouse release - and psychological ordeal

Ahmad Manasra was arrested at the age of 13 and later convicted of attempted murder. AFP

Arrested aged 13 and held in an Israeli prison for nearly a decade, Ahmad Manasra's ordeal did not end with his release a month ago.

First, the young Palestinian's family waited for hours at the main gate of Al Nafha Prison, only to find authorities had deposited him about 50 kilometres away in Beersheba.

“Eventually, someone did find him and help him," Mr Manasra’s lawyer since 2021, Khaled Zabarka, told The National. "He called his parents because he had his father’s number memorised and they came to him. Otherwise, a disaster might have happened."

Next, after picking him up, Mr Manasra’s family received a phone call from Maskubiyeh police station in Jerusalem, asking he be brought back for questioning, “part of the constant pursuit of Ahmad", Mr Zabarka said.

Mr Manasra now experiences severe psychological issues after years of isolation, his lawyers told The National.

Teenage arrest

In 2015, he was arrested after entering East Jerusalem with his cousin Hassan, 15, while carrying knives. Hassan was shot dead by police after he stabbed an Israeli man and critically wounded a 13-year-old Israeli boy.

Ahmad was convicted of attempted murder and served nine and a half years in prison.

Moaad Abu Irsheid, another lawyer for Mr Manasra, was present for the round of questioning after his release. He said it was an attempt by Israeli authorities to “reopen wounds”.

Conditions were put on his release, such as "no hosting celebrations, forming crowds, or raising flags, and being on house arrest until Sunday, and now he’s with his parents”, Mr Abu Irsheid said.

“He was nervous, and so were his family, and the fact that he was called in for questioning after nine and a half years of being in prison is not normal. He finished his sentence, why would they call him back? I don’t find that normal or lawful.”

Ahmad Manasra being released from Israeli custody on April 10. AFP

The lawyer explained that although the police have the authority to call anyone in for questioning, they did so without any precedent or suspected crime. And if Mr Manasra refused to co-operate with the questioning or to abide by the set conditions, he would have spent another night in prison and faced court.

“He was scared. He told me he wanted to go home, to go to his bed, and that he misses freedom. He doesn’t exactly understand it well, either, because he’s not in good shape mentally."

Child in prison

Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, about 10,000 Palestinians have been taken into Israeli custody. Some are unable to reach their families or have any outside contact without their lawyers.

After Mr Manasra was detained in 2015, he was investigated by Israeli authorities and was sent to prison a year later, still a juvenile.

He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 180,000 shekels ($47,900) as his case was classified as "terrorism" by the Israeli Supreme Court. However, the sentence was reduced to nine and a half years in 2017.

Mr Zabarka attempted to reduce Mr Manasra’s prison sentence again in 2021 but was unsuccessful.

“We had a lot of hope they would [comply] because he entered prison as a 13-year-old child, and we thought, a child that was in seventh grade … they must reduce his sentence by a third and treat him legally how they would treat minors, as per juvenile law,” Mr Zabarka said.

Under an amendment to Israel’s terrorism laws in 2019, it became obligatory to prohibit anyone involved in national security violations from a reduction of a third of their sentence.

But under juvenile law the authorities "should have rehabilitated him instead of punishing him”, Mr Zabarka added. As a last resort, Mr Zabarka addressed the case to the supreme court but the appeal was rejected again.

Demonstrators in the West Bank mimic being handcuffed in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners. AFP

While Israel’s juvenile law is aimed at protecting minors, Mr Manasra was the exception, which led to his “health relapse”, said Mr Zabarka. Banned from contacting his family and having no support system for so long have adversely affected his mental health.

“He was going through all these tough situations with the mindset of a child. How much can a child handle? It is impossible for a child to handle this.”

Solitary confinement and illness

Mr Manasra’s psychological problems were heavily influenced and exacerbated by the period he spent in solitary confinement, his lawyers said.

When Mr Zabarka’s attempt at reducing the prison sentence failed, he tried to reason with Israeli authorities on keeping Mr Manasra away from solitary confinement to salvage his mental state.

“We were against it, but [the prison authorities] said they were putting him there on the pretext that he was mentally ill to protect him from himself and protect other detainees from him,” Mr Zabarka said.

Mr Manasra’s family requested he be put in a room with other Palestinian prisoners who would be “ready to take care of him and protect him”, and provided reports from mental health specialists that said solitary confinement would “exacerbate his psychological condition and make his illness more difficult to deal with”, said Mr Zabarka. Yet their requests were denied again.

“A mentally ill person, especially a child, should be put in a place where there is social support, he needs social warmth and medication. But their aim was to torture him even more.”

When Mr Zabarka visited his client in prison at one of his all-time lows, Mr Manasra expressed thoughts of ending his life and the lack of purpose he feels.

“Putting a prisoner in solitary confinement is one of the methods of torture prohibited by law,” said Mr Zabarka. "This is a protocol of torture and a practice of torture on Ahmad Manasra. He has been exposed to torture from the moment he was detained until he was freed from prison."