Layan Bsharat and Rania Abushamala
02 August 2026•Update: 02 August 2026
A Palestinian child remains unconscious and on a ventilator after suffering torture and medical neglect during his detention in an Israeli prison, with his right foot at risk of amputation, a prisoners’ rights group said Sunday.
The Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement that Mohammed Hmeid, 16, from the town of Tuqu’ in the southern West Bank province of Bethlehem, was detained by Israeli forces on Feb. 25, 2026.
He was held in the juvenile section of Ofer Prison near Ramallah, the nongovernmental group said.
Hmeid was subjected to “harsh detention conditions that included torture, abuse, starvation and denial of treatment,” it said, adding that his family was prevented from visiting him and the International Committee of the Red Cross was barred from visiting Palestinian prisoners.
The group said Hmeid contracted scabies in April but was denied the necessary treatment by the prison administration, causing his condition to worsen and resulting in severe skin infections.
He later developed a high fever and was taken to the prison clinic, where preliminary examinations indicated a severe urinary tract infection and elevated blood sugar levels, according to the statement.
“On July 20, the child was transferred to the Israeli Shaare Zedek hospital after the Ramla Prison clinic refused to admit him because he had scabies,” the group said.
It added that Israeli authorities returned him to Ofer Prison less than 12 hours later “despite his serious health condition” and kept him there for four days while he received antibiotics without improvement.
Hmeid subsequently underwent heart surgery, and examinations later showed neurological damage affecting several parts of his body, including his right foot, which is at risk of amputation, the group said.
Despite the severity of his condition, Hmeid remained shackled to his bed throughout the period he was held at the hospital, it added.
On July 30, following intervention by Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, his family was allowed to visit him after Israeli authorities decided to release him because his condition had become “extremely critical,” according to the statement.
Hmeid remains unconscious and on a ventilator in the intensive care unit at Shaare Zedek hospital, where his condition is still “extremely critical,” it said.
“Doctors are waiting for Mohammed’s condition to stabilize to assess the extent of the damage to his body and the possibility of amputating his right foot,” the group said.
It warned that Hmeid’s case “is not an isolated incident, but embodies a systematic Israeli policy based on denying prisoners health care.”
Palestinian prisoners’ organizations have documented several cases in which detainees were ordered released only after reaching critical stages of illness, the group said, describing the practice as “one of the most dangerous manifestations of the slow-killing policy.”
Around 350 Palestinian children are held in Israel’s Megiddo and Ofer prisons, though the number changes daily because of continuing arrest campaigns, according to the group.
It said more than 100 Palestinian detainees had died in Israeli prisons since October 2023, with the identities of 90 announced, while Israel currently holds around 9,400 Palestinian prisoners, including 94 women and more than 350 children.
