Name: Zain Al-Din Issa Thawabteh   

Date of Birth: 5/7/2009   

Age: 16 years old   

Residence: Bethlehem – Beit Fajjar   

Marital Status: Single   

Date of Arrest: 25/9/2024   

Occupation: 10th grade student   

Prison: Megiddo (Juvenile Section)   

Legal Status: Administrative Detention 

The arrest: 

On September 25, 2024, Zain Al-Din’s mother was sitting at home with her husband when they heard that special forces were present at the entrance of the town and had arrested some children. The last thing she expected was that her son, Zain Al-Din, would be among them. When Yazan, Zain Al-Din’s older brother, entered the house, he informed her that people from the village had seen the special forces arresting Zain Al-Din and his friend Abdullah after assaulting them. 

Yazan immediately called Abdullah’s phone, and an Israeli army officer answered, telling him that both Zain Al-Din and Abdullah were detained and that there was no need to inquire further—they were with the army. A few days later, the family learned that Zain Al-Din was being held in Megiddo Prison under administrative detention. 

Administrative detention is a crime committed against children: 

On September 26, 2024, the military commander of the area issued an administrative detention order against the child Zain Al-Din Thawabteh for a period of four months, starting from September 26, 2024, and ending on January 24, 2025. The order was later renewed for another four months, set to expire on May 23, 2025. After that, the order could either be renewed again or he could be released. 

During the most recent confirmation session for the second order, held on January 26, 2025, at the Ofer Military Court, the hearing was divided into two parts. In the public session, the judge claimed that although the detainee, Zain Al-Din, has no organizational affiliation and no prior security record, he is suspected of promoting popular resistance activity, and thus poses a threat to the security of the area—a vague accusation commonly cited in thousands of administrative detention orders issued against Palestinians. 

The second part of the session was based on a secret file submitted by the military prosecution to the judge, who then decided not to disclose the contents or sources of this “classified information,” citing concerns for regional security. The judge confirmed his full alignment with the prosecution’s request by approving the full duration of the detention order, thereby denying both the detainee and his lawyer access to the evidence and stripping the child of his right to defend himself in a fair and public trial. 

This affirms that the occupation systematically uses administrative detention as a tool of collective punishment targeting all segments of Palestinian society—including children. This group, in particular, has not been spared from arrest policies and the accompanying brutality and abuse from the moment of detention. These practices severely impact children’s psychological and social development during a critical stage of life, with long-term effects on the formation of their personalities. 

The arrest of children is a targeting of childhood and a deprivation of a dignified life... 

With Zain Al-Din’s arrest, the laughter disappeared from the house—this is how his mother began her words when we asked her how his detention affected the family. She added that this is the first time anyone in their family has been arrested, and it has deeply impacted the atmosphere of their home and their daily lives. 

Zain Al-Din, as his mother describes him, was the voice and laughter of the house. In his absence, that voice is gone, and so is the joy. He is the third of his siblings, preceded by his older brother Yazan, 22 years old, and his sister Aisha, 20 years old. He is followed by his twin brothers Jad and Jude, both 11 years old. 

Despite his age, Zain Al-Din has a unique and influential personality—cheerful, kind to everyone, strong-willed, respectful, and responsible. He took great care of his younger brothers and sister, often playing with them and bringing them candy and sweets. His absence is felt not only by his family but by the entire town of Beit Fajjar. 

His mother and the rest of the family now live through the pain of forced separation and the agony of waiting for a postponed freedom—because under administrative detention, there is no known release date. 

This pain is accompanied by constant fear and anxiety, especially under the harsh conditions that Palestinian prisoners—men, women, and children—are currently facing in Israeli prisons. As soon as a family member is arrested, the entire family loses the right to communicate with them due to the ban on prison visits since October 2023. The only possible communication is through lawyer visits, which are themselves often obstructed or canceled by the prison authorities under various pretexts, or through other prisoners who have been released and had been detained alongside the arrested individual. 

Zain Al-Din’s mother says, “We follow the news with constant worry, afraid that something bad might happen to him.” The family learned through a lawyer’s visit that Zain Al-Din is suffering from scabies and has not received any medical treatment or care. This, in itself, puts the family in a state of ongoing distress. They monitor the news to find out which children have been released from Megiddo Prison—where Zain Al-Din is held—in order to contact them and check on his wellbeing. 

In recent weeks, they managed to learn about Zain Al-Din through released children who were detained with him. These children consistently report the harsh and degrading conditions they endured, conditions that fail to acknowledge that they are minors. Despite this, they resist through solidarity. One child described how, during violent raids by special units into their rooms, the children shield one another to reduce the severity of the beatings. 

“These words alone are enough to break you,” Zain Al-Din’s mother says, describing the deep emotional toll this has taken on the entire family. The whole household ends up paying the price for this arbitrary and unjust arrest. 

Today, as a result of his detention, the child Zain Al-Din is living in a place that is both dark and unjust—instead of living in freedom, playing with his friends, and sitting in a classroom like children anywhere else in the world. He is a tenth-grade student, and with his arrest, he is at risk of losing his academic year. 

His mother explains that the first semester of the school year has already ended, and now the second semester is nearing its end. If his administrative detention order is renewed, he will be deprived of completing his school year, which would negatively impact his academic future and set him back compared to his peers. 

This shows that administrative detention of children is not just about imprisonment—it is an assault on the lives of an entire generation, hindering their personal and educational development. This, in turn, affects the growth and progress of the society as a whole. It is no coincidence that such a vital group for the development of human societies is deliberately targeted by the occupation in an effort to destroy its social fabric and distort the awareness of its youth.