Before his arrest, 15-year-old Izz al-Din Jamjoum lived a peaceful and ordinary life. He spent his days going to school and playing football in the streets of his neighbourhood, al-‘Esawiyah, in northeast Jerusalem. But one day, that peaceful life was suddenly taken away.
On 15 March, while on his way to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque through Bab al-Amoud, Israeli soldiers stopped him, forced him into a military jeep, and beat him.
“I asked them why they were arresting me,” Izz al-Din told The New Arab. “No one answered. Instead, they blindfolded me, bound my hands behind my back, and took me to an interrogation centre in the Old City of Jerusalem.”
What followed, he says, was 20 days of fear, violence, and abuse.
“I was beaten until I fainted more than once,” he said. “They gave me rotten food — mouldy milk, bread fit only for a cat — and uncooked rice at night.”
Each night, he was forced to sleep on a cold iron bed with no mattress. His body was bruised and sore. “Soldiers would burst into the cell at night to wake me violently, just to torment me psychologically,” the child shares.
Throughout his time in detention, Izz al-Din says he was kept away from both his family and any legal support. “They took me to court hearings that my family didn’t even know about. I asked the judge why I was arrested, but he ignored me.”
Eventually, after 20 days, the authorities let him go — but the punishment continued.
On 3 April, he was released under strict conditions: he was placed under open-ended house arrest and fined 5,000 shekels (around $1,400).
Loss of innocence
Now, Izz al-Din cannot leave his home, or even go to school.
“I was preparing for my exams,” he said quietly. “And now my future is slipping away. I used to go to school in the morning and play football in the evening… Now I’m stuck here, not knowing when this nightmare will end.”
Each day, from behind the cramped walls of his home, Izz al-Din watches other children playing outside, his heart aching for the freedom he once had.
His mother, Suhair Jamjoum, said her son’s arrest left the whole family in shock. “No words can capture the pain of seeing my son arrested and treated so cruelly. He carried no weapon — only a simple dream: to pray, to learn, to live his childhood like any other child.”
When Izz al-Din came home, she noticed straight away that something had changed. “There was a loss of innocence in his eyes — beyond his 15 years,” she said.
She now sees the house arrest as another form of prison. “Every day he looks out at the playing children, and my heart breaks seeing him denied the freedom he deserves.”
Because of this new reality, Suhair has called on the world to take action. “I urge the world to look at Palestinian children with their hearts. Intervene now to end the arrest of Palestinian minors and protect them from such brutal treatment. They deserve a life of dignity — to attend school safely, to play without fear, and to dream of a bright future, not to live imprisoned in their own childhood.”