For 10 long months, Hussein*, 16, lived in the same clothes he was wearing when he was arrested on October 3.
His pants were still stained with blood when he was released.
On October 3, he was shot and wounded in the right thigh by Israeli forces in a watchtower near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
Hussein fell to the ground and saw two Israeli soldiers advancing towards him. They beat him, kicking him in the head until he lost consciousness.
He woke up three days later in a hospital, realizing he had undergone surgery and was about to be taken to Ofer prison.
It was just days before Israel launched its ongoing assault on Gaza and the last time he received medical treatment in detention.
I can’t walk
Hussein is one of hundreds of children detained by Israel over the years, a number that has multiplied dramatically since Israel began its assault on Gaza on October 7 and stepped up its daily raids and mass arrest campaigns in the West Bank.
He loved going to the gym and challenging himself to lift more weights. He also enjoyed playing soccer with his friends.
Today he limps, needs crutches to walk and spends most of his day lying on a mattress.
He will need surgery to implant his joints once he is fully grown at age 18.
“I’m really struggling… I can’t walk properly or catch up with my friends,” Hussein told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Medical neglect is just one of many forms of abuse, torture, humiliation and mistreatment that Palestinian prisoners face in Israeli detention centers, according to several human rights groups.
Together with UN agencies, they have highlighted the systematic abuses being committed.
More than 700 arrests of children have been recorded by the Palestinian Prisoners Society since October 7. Currently, 250 of them are still being held in Israel.
“This figure, especially compared to previous periods, is very high,” said Amani Sarahneh, spokeswoman for the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
Sarahneh added that children are abused and tortured in the same way as adult Palestinian prisoners.
“A Palestinian child will likely face every abuse tactic imaginable,” she said, adding that Israeli forces have been using them on Palestinian children for many years.
Palestinian detainees are beaten, exposed to cold for long periods and deprived of food, sleep, water and medical care, a report released last month by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights revealed.
Children today live “in a constant state of hunger in Israeli prisons,” Sarhaneh said.
“Just enough to keep us alive”
Upon his release from detention, Wassim suffered from vitamin, iron and calcium deficiencies.
“Prison was… unlivable,” he said.
“I was asking for medical attention every day, but… no doctors showed up, they didn’t even exist (in the prison),” Wassim said.
Food rations were also grossly inadequate: Hussein said he and the nine other prisoners in his cell were given food in “a tiny plastic cup.”
“It was just enough to keep us alive,” he said.
“Most of the time it was white rice… sometimes it was undercooked. We would eat, be full for five minutes, then go about the rest of the day as if we were fasting.
“We would ask for water and end up drinking the contaminated water from the toilets. We were forced to do it… we had no choice,” he recalls.
Israeli prison authorities closed the canteen where prisoners could buy food and basic necessities and removed electrical appliances, including hotplates and kettles.
Hussein’s father, Omar*, said he was very worried about his son, especially after October 7.
“After the Gaza war, when we learned how dire the situation of Palestinians in Israeli prisons had become, we were devastated,” Omar told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“We cried… day and night,” he recalls.
Omar had hoped that Hussein would be released in November, when Israel and Hamas reached a temporary ceasefire agreement that included the exchange of dozens of Palestinian prisoners with some of those held in Gaza.
But despite his injury, Hussein was not released.
“They deprived him of his childhood and the rest of his life,” Omar said.
According to Omar, Hussein, who is much calmer, is now struggling to reintegrate into his community. In crowds, he tends to withdraw into a corner and often wakes up with nightmares.
“I just want to work and build a house”
In the town of al-Mughayyir, near Ramallah, another Palestinian boy was released on August 8.
Ahmed Abu Naim, now 18, has been in and out of Israeli detention centers since he was 15, sometimes being held in administrative detention – for renewable six-month periods under the pretext of secret evidence.
There has been an “unprecedented and terrifying increase” in the number of children being administratively detained, according to Serhaneh of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, who said at least 40 children are being held under the widely criticized practice.
When asked to compare his detention before and after October 7, Abu Naim said: “The last time I was arrested, it was different; it was much worse than the other times.”
The first time he was arrested for two days. The second time he was detained for just over a year.
The third time, he spent six months in detention.
He said his most recent experience was “1,000 times harder.”
“They didn’t treat us differently because we were minors,” said Abu Naim, who recalls being severely beaten “on many occasions.”
“We were even sprayed with gas sometimes,” he said.
Wearing a baseball cap, he tried to speak boldly, wanting to appear both older and stronger.
Abu Naim is recovering from scabies, a skin disease that spread in Megiddo prison, where he was being held.
“Hygiene standards were poor. We were not allowed to clean and had no access to soap or detergent,” he said.
The overcrowded cells often hold twice as many inmates as intended, and many sleep on the floor or on moldy mattresses.
“Everyone got scabies, including me,” he said. Again, no medical intervention was put in place to counter the outbreak.
“Of course, they didn’t give us any medical care. I had to buy my own medicine when I got home,” he said.
After October 7, cell searches became more frequent, Abu Naim said.
When the guards entered the cell, all the prisoners had to kneel with their hands on their heads. Otherwise, they “set dogs on us,” he said.
“The guards would beat anyone, even if you were injured at the time of arrest. They would kick you in the stomach, ribs, shoulders,” he said.
Additionally, family visits, as well as routine visits from lawyers, have also “completely stopped,” said Serhaneh of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, which affects the behavior and morale of detained children.
Abu Naim had no access to a television or radio to help pass the time, especially during the first 50 days of the Israeli assault on Gaza.
“We had no idea what was happening in the outside world. Every month or two we would hear about a new prisoner,” he says.
“My village was attacked by illegal settlers and my father was shot and injured, but I only found out after I got home,” he added.
Abu Naim said he now wants to work with his father in construction instead of returning to school.
As the eldest of 10 children, he always felt a strong sense of responsibility towards his family and their well-being.
Asked about his dreams, he replied: “Simply not to be taken anymore. I just want to work and build a house.”
*Some names have been changed to protect the identities of the individuals.
