An 21-month-old boy's mental state has 'greatly deteriorated' after he was released from Israeli detention with signs of torture , the toddler's mother has told The New Arab .
A medical report found that Israeli soldiers extinguished cigarettes on Jawad Abu Nasser, pricked him, and forced metal nails into his skin while trying to force a confession from his father, Osama. Jawad was returned to his mother after he was detained and tortured by Israeli forces for 10 hours, his family said. His trousers showed clear entrance and exit holes, and were covered in blood. The toddler has large wounds on both legs, believed to be cigarette burns .
Jawad's mother says there has been a noticeable change in her son's behaviour after he was released from detention. 'My son was like a flower. There was nothing wrong with him,' she says, 'now he suffers from many things.' Prior to his detention and torture, the family said Jawad was in good health.
Now his mother says the 21-month-old does not eat much or play as much as he used to. His movement has also been affected; he can no longer walk as well as he did before the ordeal. Jawad's mother told The New Arab her son is 'always sacred,' wakes up frightened, and refuses to leave her side.
At 21 months old, Jawad was born into the Israeli genocide in Gaza. His mother was worried about what her son's life would be like under constant Israeli assault . She was reassured when he began to talk and laugh with his parents. Now her fears have come true.
Jawad's family say they try to keep him distracted because there are few other options available. Jawad's mother said she could not take him to a specialist psychological treatment centre as these have been destroyed in Israeli attacks.
Dr Dardah Al-Shaer, professor of social psychology at Gaza University , told TNA that the Gaza Strip is now experiencing one of the largest collective psychological disasters in modern history. "We are not talking about individual cases of depression or anxiety; we are talking about an entire society living a continuous collective trauma, where people lost safety, home, family, work, and the future at the same time, and this leads to widespread psychological collapse," he said.
"Children are the most psychologically affected group by the war, because a child cannot interpret what is happening around them—bombing, killing, displacement, and loss of family—so many psychological and behavioural symptoms appear such as bedwetting, sudden silence, stuttering, nightmares, severe fear, and sometimes what is called psychogenic seizures or dissociation from reality," al-Shaer added.
Israel has denied the family's claims that soldiers detained and tortured Jawad and said the allegations are “completely unfounded” claiming instead as usual with such accusations that his father was "a terrorist who used the boy as a human shield”.
Long before the war in Gaza, Israel is known to have systematically tortured children. Since the genocide that began in October 2023, Israel has operated industrial-scale torture facilities for Palestinian detainees.