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Photos:
Dima al-Wawi. Published by Maan News

Dima al-Wawi is embraced by her mother after being released form 75 days in an Israeli prison, Jabara checkpoint, West Bank, April 24, 2016. (Keren Manor/Activestills.org) Published by 972Mag

Journalists talk to 12-year-old Dima al-Wawi and her parents at the Jabara checkpoint, where Israeli authorities released her after 75 days imprisonment, West Bank, April 24, 2016. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org) Published by 972Mag

Dima al-Wawi is embraced by her father after being released form 75 days in an Israeli prison, Jabara checkpoint, West Bank, April 24, 2016. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org) Published by 972Mag
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HEBRON (Ma’an) -- The Israeli authorities on Sunday released 12-year-old Dima al-Wawi to her family after she spent two-and-a-half months in Israeli prison for attempted manslaughter carried out at an illegal Israeli settlement.

Believed to have been the youngest female Palestinian to be incarcerated by Israel, al-Wawi's parent filed requests for her release and Israel agreed to release the child two months early, alongside an 8,000 shekel ($2,100) plea deal payment.

She was released at the Israeli military checkpoint Jubara in the northern West Bank district of Tulkarem, welcomed by the district's governor Issam Abu Bakr and head of the Palestinian Authority’s Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Qaraqe, among others.

“The detention of children is a crime against humanity,” the governor said, adding that "the Israeli occupation violates children's’ dignity and their right to live.”

Issa Qaraqe also addressed those welcoming al-Wawi saying that Israel “practices the ugliest means of suppression and torture against Palestinian children.”

Head of Palestinian Prisoners’ Society in Hebron Amjad al-Najjar said that a press conference will be held in al-Wawi’s home in the village of Halhul in Hebron once she arrives.

Al-Wawi was detained on Feb. 9 and sentenced in an Israeli military court on Feb. 18 for attempted voluntary manslaughter and the illegal possession of a knife, after she allegedly went to the illegal Karmei Tzur settlement with the intention of stabbing settlers.

Her detention was caught on tape and broadcast by Israeli Channel 1, where the girl is recorded admitting her intention to carry out a stabbing attack.

Earlier this month, following the requests filed by her parents, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) agreed to the early release of Dima al-Wawi, initially sentenced to four-and-a-half months in prison for attempted manslaughter.

The 12-year-old's parents, backed by a public campaign, sought to end their daughters' detention, which they said violated both Israeli and international law regarding the detention of children.

While Israeli law does not allow prison sentences for children under the age of 14, Israeli military law -- which applies to Palestinians living under military occupation in the West Bank -- allows for children as young as 12 to be charged for "nationalistic-motivated" violent offenses.

Al-Wawi was reportedly held in prison alongside adult prisoners and denied access to a social worker during her detention.
Violations against Palestinian children in Israel's military court system are widely documented.

According to figures obtained by Haaretz from IPS, the number of Palestinian minors imprisoned for security-related offenses rose from 170 last September to 438 in February, following a wave of unrest that has spread across the occupied Palestinian territory since October.

Al-Wawi was among five Palestinian children and the only girl under the age of 14 held Israeli prisons during this period, while no Palestinians under 14 were being held prior to September, the report added.

Only one Palestinian girl had been held in Israeli custody before September, while 12 have been imprisoned since, including al-Wawi.
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A Jewish child arrested for an identical crime in the same location would not have been sent to prison. Israeli authorities released the girl after the case got attention and a request from her parents.

Text by Oren Ziv / Activestills.org published by 972Mag

Twelve-year-old Dima al-Wawi, the youngest Palestinian in Israeli prison, was released after two-and-a-half months on Sunday. Israeli authorities delivered her to the Jabara checkpoint in the West Bank in the early afternoon hours, where she was met by her parents and waiting journalists.

Al-Wawi was arrested 75 days earlier at the entrance to the Israeli settlement of Karmei Tzur near Hebron for being in possession of a knife. She surrendered the knife to a security guard at the entrance of the settlement and was arrested without incident.

She was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment as part of a plea deal in which she was convicted of attempted manslaughter. The Israel Prison Service agreed to release the 12 year old two months before the end of her sentence, however, after an appeal by her parents and a growing international campaign.

The case highlighted the separate legal systems that Palestinian and Jewish children are subject to in the West Bank. Al-Wawi, a Palestinian, was sent to prison under military law, which considers the age of criminal culpability to be 12.

A Jewish child of the same age living on the same land and accused of the same crime would be subject to Israeli law, wherein the age of criminal culpability is 14; the Jewish child would not be sent to prison.

Al-Wawi ran to hug her parents as soon as she was released from the Israel Prison Service transport vehicle Sunday afternoon.

Dozens of Palestinian and international journalists and photographers rushed her and tried to get her to make a statement.

Dima al-Wawi is embraced by her father after being released form 75 days in an Israeli prison, Jabara checkpoint, West Bank, April 24, 2016. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)
The 12-year-old girl had difficulty speaking but eventually said she wasn’t scared and that she hopes all Palestinian prisoners are released soon.

Her mother, Umm Rashid, told +972, “I am happy that she was released but am furious about the situation. I was angry the day she was arrested and on every one of the 75 days that she was in Israeli prison. She was a girl who was always happy and wanting to play and now she came out of prison scared and weak.”

“Maybe she had a knife when they arrested her but she is just a child,” Umm Rashid continued. “What would she have been able to do with a knife? In Israel they don’t treat children the way they treat our children.”

Al-Wawi, like many other Palestinian prisoners, was held in a prison outside the occupied territories, which is a violation of international law.