Israel's youngest prisoner says life in prison 'was exactly as my father told me'

Ahmad Salaima is greeted by his family upon arrival at his home in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem. Photo: AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP

A Palestinian boy, 14, jailed for throwing stones, is looking forward to returning to school after being freed in a hostage deal.

Ahmad Salaime, the youngest Palestinian freed in the exchange, spent five months in prison. Damon Prison in the northern district of Haifa.

He had previously been on trial or under house arrest for a year on charges including throwing stones at Israeli settlers.

On the day of his release, Ahmad's mother was photographed throwing her arms around his neck, apparently overcome with joy.

“I'm looking forward to normal things, like going back to school,” Ahmad told The Telegraph at his family home on the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem. .

During the ceasefire, Israel released 240 Palestinian women and children in exchange for 110 Israeli hostages. The boy's imprisonment was not his family's first encounter with the prison system.

Ahmad Salaime's mother greets him outside his home in East Jerusalem Photo: AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP

His father, Nawaf, served five years in the same prison after being arrested during the first Palestinian intifada in the early 1990s. More than 100 Israeli civilians were then killed in a long-running uprising in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Nawaf was jailed for rioting, hatred and car burning.

Ahmad, in while reluctant to discuss his experience with Damon, said his father prepared him for the experience.

«There was nothing that surprised me,» he told The Telegraph. “Everything was exactly as my dad told me.”

Reflecting on his son's imprisonment, Nawaf said he understood the boy's rage towards the Israeli government, but really wanted him to choose a different path in life.

“This is our nation — how can I tell him to stop fighting for our country?”

“[But] I’m trying to tell him that he can work against the system in other ways besides throwing stones: study to be a lawyer, a human rights activist.”< /p>

Ahmad “came out of the same prison, from the same prison gates as me,” he sighed.

Israeli security forces have banned any celebrations for the release of Palestinian prisoners in East Jerusalem, where they still maintain control.

But there were parties in the West Bank where crowds chanted pro-Hamas slogans, played pop music and set off fireworks.

None of the freed Palestinians was found guilty of murder, but a small number of people committed serious attacks. One woman was left mutilated in a failed explosion, another stabbed a teacher.

However, according to an analysis by a human rights group and local media, about 80 percent of the list of 300 Palestinian women and children submitted for potential release by the Israeli government were not convicted at all.

Many of them were convicted.

Many of them were convicts. is being held in so-called administrative detention, a practice that allows Israel to jail non-Israeli citizens in the West Bank on the basis of secret evidence without bringing charges.

Human rights groups have called for an end to the practice, saying it leaves detainees with little opportunity to defend themselves.

Ahmad and other former prisoners described how prison conditions changed overnight after Hamas's cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, in as a result of which 1,200 Israelis were killed.

The next morning, guards removed televisions and radios from the cells. They also closed the dining room.

The prisoners knew something had happened but didn't know the details, said Mohammad Salaime, Ahmad's second cousin, who was jailed with him one day in July.

“I had no idea about the Hamas attack or the war in Gaza until I left prison,” 16-year-old Mohammed told the Telegraph. Although there were rumors of war, «we had no idea what kind of war — here in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip.»

On Tuesday morning, Mohammed was released for questioning, he was told.

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“I had to sign a document saying I was not to participate in any celebrations, not to wave flags or invite large groups people,” he said.

“I asked: “Why?” And then they answered: “Because you are going home.”

During the liberation, Ahmad and Mohammed were put in civilian cars along with their fathers and Israeli soldiers.

During the liberation, Ahmad and Mohammed were placed in civilian cars next to their fathers and Israeli soldiers.

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Mohammad was asked to turn away and look away from the window: only when he returned home did he realize that he his father was one place away from him during the trip.

'Thank Gaza and the blood people'

Nawaf, Ahmad's father, said he was in no mood to party even when his son returned home.

“Unfortunately, the release of these people was only possible thanks to the Gaza Strip and the blood of the people,” he said.

“It would be wrong to celebrate.”

< p>Many of the prisoners on the exchange list were arrested during the Israeli sweep in the West Bank and East Jerusalem after the October 7 attack, in which 3,260 Palestinians were detained, including 200 children, according to Palestinian prisoners' rights group Addamer.

While prosecutors continue to pursue cases against Palestinian teenagers throwing stones at settlers, settler violence against Palestinians has also increased sharply since the outbreak of the Gaza war.

In East Jerusalem, the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood has long been is the flash point. In the early 2000s, an American businessman bought a plot of land there to build a settlement.

Despite international protests, the settlement of Ma'ale Zeitim remains — a cluster of apartment buildings located on a hill behind a high concrete wall.

On a recent afternoon, Orthodox Jewish women hurried through the streets near a settlement guarded by Israeli officers with automatic rifles.

At least five boys from Ras al-Amud, two of them from the extended Salaime family, were detained. and accused of throwing stones at settlers last year.

It's not easy to keep teenagers off the streets and from confronting intruders, Ras al-Amud residents say.

Sitting with friends a short walk from Ahmad's home, Mohammed told the Telegraph his father was desperate to keep him out of prison.

“Dad told me not to go out and said he would now drive me to school himself. so I don't get arrested again,» he said.

Nawaf, Mohammed's uncle and himself a father of six, said he had little hope of ending the cycle of violence.

He is 13- year-old son Ayham, whose voice has not yet broken, is under house arrest at home on the same charges as his older brother.

“Who knows, he might also have to become our youngest prisoner,” said Mr. Salaime.