18 year old Hussein has been held in Israel’s prison camps for over two months without charge or trial. He is a shepherd from the Khirbet Makhoul community in the north Jordan Valley of the Occupied West Bank. On April 10th, 2026 Hussein was on his way to sell cheese from his family’s farm when he was stopped and abducted by occupation forces, who later claimed he had a knife and head covering in his car.
However, as anyone who knows Hussein can attest, and as Hussein explained to the court, Hussein wears a head covering to protect himself from the sun while grazing his herd and needs the knife for farm work – such as cutting open bales of hay.
At a hearing to extend his captivity, the occupation court accepted Hussein’s reasoning and ordered his release on bail. The occupation forces appealed the court’s decision, and three days later the court rejected the military’s request and once again ordered Hussein’s release. The family paid his bail, and his lawyer began preparations for his release, but the occupation forces refused to release him against the orders of their own court.
Forcing another hearing without Hussein’s lawyer of choice, they extended his detention for another six days so that they could obtain an ‘administrative detention’ order from the military courts.
On June 10th, the appeal against his administrative detention was rejected without a hearing.
Hussein is now under administrative detention in what is widely regarded as Israel’s torture camp prison system. Administrative detention is a tool used by the occupation to hold Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial for months to years without due process.
“I will die before I leave my land.” – Hussein’s father, Yousef Bsharat
October, 2025: One of many instances in which Israeli occupation forces kidnapped, blindfolded, and tortured men from Khirbet Makhoul. After turning his mobile on, Yousef found that the Israeli occupation forces had taken this photo of him.
Hussein’s family in Khirbet Makhoul is one of the last communities that resists and remains steadfast on their land in the Jordan Valley. They face constant settler harassment, attacks, and intimidation by the occupation forces. Anyone who knows the family, knows how defiant they are in their resistance to the zionist occupation.
Hussein has been detained and arrested before, as have his father and uncle. It is part of a constant pattern of violence and harassment from the occupation to drive them from their land. This latest abduction of Hussein, a teenager doing nothing more than tending to his flock and land, is a blatant part of the pressure to ethnically cleanse Khirbet Makhoul.
As of February, 2026 – there were over 3350 Palestinian prisoners in administrative detention. The total number of Palestinian prisonders is near 10,000. The evidence that Israel tortures, rapes, and kills Palestinians in prison on a systematic level is overwhelming.
Below we are reproducing a statement from Hussein from the last time he was imprisoned by the occupation forces:
“I didn’t just enter prison for three days; I entered a cruel world, devoid of mercy. Three days were enough to reveal to me the true face of oppression. I was beaten, humiliated, and they cut my hair as if they wanted to strip me of my identity before my freedom. But they didn’t know that dignity cannot be cut off, nor erased, no matter how intense the pain.
In the cell, where cruelty is the law, I and the other prisoners learned how to create life from the simplest things. From olive branches, we made a rosary, stealing moments of remembrance and patience, creating meaning from nothingness, and strength from pain. There, a person fought to remain human.
I left after three days, but prison didn’t leave me easily. I left carrying unseen pain and an unforgettable story. Yet, I left with my head held high, because whoever preserves their spirit in a place like that is the strongest. I was not just a prisoner… I was proof that the free spirit cannot be defeated, no matter how cramped the cells become.”