Israel releases Ahmad Manasra after 9 years in prison
by Naharnet Newsdesk 6 hours
Israel on Thursday released a Palestinian who took part in an attack when he was 13 and developed schizophrenia in prison as requests for early release were denied.
Israel says Ahmad Manasra is a terrorist who tried to kill Jews his own age. Palestinians accuse Israel of subjecting a child 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.
In 2015, Manasra, then 13, and his 15-year-old cousin rampaged through a Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem with knives. His cousin, Hassan, critically wounded a 13-year-old Israeli boy who was leaving a candy store and stabbed an Israeli man before being shot dead by police.
Ahmad was run over by a car, beaten and taunted by Israeli passers-by. A graphic video of Ahmad lying in the street, bleeding from the head while Israelis taunted him, garnered millions of views.
He was later convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. Doctors said he developed schizophrenia in solitary confinement and tried to harm himself and others.
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.
The Prisons Authority on Thursday declined to comment on the specific conditions under which he had been held, saying all prisoners are held in accordance with Israeli and international law and that any allegations of abuse are investigated.
Rights groups say conditions inside Israeli prisons have become far more harsh since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian prisoners released during a recent ceasefire often appeared gaunt and ill, and many went straight to local hospitals for treatment.
The Israeli ministry in charge of prisons has boasted that it has reduced the conditions of security prisoners to the bare minimum required by Israeli law.
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LBCI
41 minutes ago
- LBCI
Greta Thunberg accuses Israel of kidnap after Gaza aid boat intercepted
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday accused Israel of "kidnapping us in international waters and taking us against out will to Israel" after security forces intercepted a boat carrying humanitarian aid bound for Gaza. "This is yet another intentional violation of rights that is added to the list of countless other violations that Israel is committing," Thunberg, 22, told reporters on arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris after being deported from Israel, stressing that her own experience was "nothing compared to what the Palestinians are going through." AFP
Nahar Net
6 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Lebanon reportedly arrests Yemeni who was spying for Israel
by Naharnet Newsdesk 10 June 2025, 15:53 A Yemeni man has been arrested in Lebanon on charges of spying for Israel, Lebanese media reports said. In remarks published Tuesday, Lebanese judicial sources confirmed to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that 'a Lebanese security agency did arrest a Yemeni man who was communicating with the Israelis.' The Lebanon 24 news portal had on Monday described the Yemeni man as 'a Houthi leader who was acting as a mediator between Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi group.' 'The man was recruited by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and he provided Israel with sensitive information about Yemen and about coordination between Hezbollah and the Houthis,' the news portal said.
Nahar Net
6 hours ago
- Nahar Net
French authorities say 14-year-old student stabbed school employee to death
by Naharnet Newsdesk 10 June 2025, 16:02 A French middle school employee was stabbed to death by a 14-year-old student during a bag check Tuesday at their school in eastern France, authorities said. The student was detained. A police officer helping with the bag checks was slightly injured during the arrest by the student, using the same knife he used against the school employee, the gendarme service said. The attack at the Francoise Dolto School in Nogent, north of the Burgundy city of Dijon, was being investigated. "While she was looking after our children in Nogent, an educational assistant lost her life, a victim of senseless violence," French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X. "The nation is in mourning and the government mobilized to bring crime down." Such fatal attacks have been rare in France, but concerns about school violence have been on the rise. The Education Ministry introduced bag checks this year at some schools to reduce it. Over a two-month period this spring, 186 knives were seized during school bag checks and 32 people detained, the interior minister's office said. Regional Prosecutor Denis Devallois said the student was 14 years old and did not have a police record. Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said the boy had been a student representative in the school's anti-bullying program, and had been briefly suspended earlier this year for disrupting class. Police officers were carrying out bag checks just outside the school, and the school employee was standing alongside them when the stabbing occurred at the school entry, the gendarme service said. The school's classes were canceled for the day, and the prosecutor said psychological help was being offered to students and staff. In April, a high school student stabbed four other students at his school in western France, killing one and wounding three others before being arrested, police said. That prompted the prime minister to call for tougher measures against knife violence in schools.
