Since discuss a doable prisoner swap to free hostages held in Gaza started circulating weeks in the past, Nawaf Salaymeh and his household had been anxiously ready to listen to if his son and two nephews could be among the many Palestinian minors who could be launched from Israeli detention.
“We have been so apprehensive about our sons,” mentioned Mr. Salaymeh. “After which lastly, aid got here.”
The three youngsters, all from East Jerusalem, are on the record of 300 names Israel says it’s contemplating for launch. Underneath a deal reached early Wednesday by Israel and Hamas below mediation by Qatar, 150 of these on the record are to be launched over 4 days in change for the discharge of fifty Israeli hostages stored in Gaza and a brief pause in preventing.
The accusations in opposition to almost one in three prisoners included throwing stones, a New York Occasions evaluation confirmed.
Mr. Salaymeh’s son Ahmad, 14, and nephews Moataz, 15, and Mohammad, 16, have been detained collectively in July. The Israeli police accused Ahmad “of throwing stones, inflicting critical bodily damage, maliciously or negligently inflicting harm to property, and hostile sabotage exercise.” Moataz and Mohammad have been additionally detained for throwing stones.
The household mentioned that the boys have been amongst a gaggle of youths who threw stones on the autos of residents of a close-by settlement who commonly drove round their neighborhood to “provoke them,” and hurl insults at them.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem from Jordan after the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1967, a declare not acknowledged by most nations, which take into account it occupied territory. Since then, a number of Israeli settlements have been inbuilt and across the metropolis’s Palestinian neighborhoods to cement Jewish management over the territory.
The household misplaced contact with the boys on Oct. 7, in accordance with Mr. Salaymeh, when Israel imposed an emergency lockdown on prisons that included bans on visits and telephone calls with inmates. The Israel Jail Service mentioned that the lockdown was imposed “because of the nationwide safety state of affairs and the threats to the security of amenities, workers, and civilians.”
“We don’t know something about our son,” Mr. Salaymeh mentioned. “Was he tortured or transferred to a different jail or put in solitary confinement? Did he also have a mattress to sleep on, a blanket to maintain him heat, or meals?”
A coalition of Israeli and Palestinian rights teams mentioned in a press release final month that the wartime lockdown denied prisoners “their basic rights” amid studies of “prolonged intervals of electrical energy and water disconnection, restrictions on important medical care” and “hours of utmost overcrowding.” The teams added that there have been “harrowing studies of inhumane therapy.”
However even earlier than the lockdown, the household noticed the boys virtually completely in court docket, as a result of, Mr. Salaymah mentioned, many requests to go to them have been denied.
At one September afternoon listening to, the boys’ teary-eyed moms waved from a distance as they have been escorted by cops into the courtroom with their palms shackled. The boys’ older sisters weren’t allowed in — they stayed outdoors, glued to their telephones, ready to be despatched movies with a glimpse of them.
The prospect of reuniting with the three has introduced the household huge aid, however Mr. Salaymeh mentioned that, if certainly they have been freed within the change for hostages, there could be no celebration.
“How can we have fun when our boys have been launched on the expense of the blood of the martyrs in Gaza?” he mentioned. “We hoped that the homecoming of our sons could be throughout a time with out bloodshed, so we might really feel pleasure.”