IDF fires teargas on Palestinian family reuniting with 15-year-old son after month in Israeli jail

Looking tiny in his adult-sized grey prison jumpsuit, 15-year-old Palestinian Ezzedine al-Lahalia appears stunned as his mother embraces him after a month in an Israeli jail.

His first request was a child’s wish for his favorite food: stuffed cabbage and shawarma.

The teenager, who had been charged with throwing stones, was reunited with his family Thursday night in an emotional scene witnessed by an AFP photographer.

Ezzedine’s mother held back tears as she kissed his cheeks, while the older men released alongside him greeted their wives and children.

Then Israeli troops fired tear gas, interrupting the families’ reunions.

Lahalia, from the West Bank city of Sair, reunited with his family in the village of Al-Jib near Jerusalem, where Israeli authorities typically release Palestinian prisoners on Thursdays.

“After the Israelis brought the prisoners out, after we had received them, they fired tear gas,” Ezzedine’s mother, Rania Jaradat tells AFP, adding that the scene was reminiscent of when soldiers took the boy from the family home on October 14, 2026.

“They were afraid that the families would assemble near the gate and celebrate,” she says.

Lahalia was released after the family paid 5,000 shekels (around $1,500) in bail.

According to the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, 9,300 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli jails, including 350 minors.

Earlier this week, the military said it had shot a 14-year-old in a group of boys it claimed was “planning” to throw stones at a passing car in the north of the West Bank. Rights groups knock the discriminatory treatment of Palestinians, noting that settlers rarely face any punishment, let alone lethal measures, for carrying out similar actions.

B’Tselem has warned about an increase in deaths of Palestinians after the easing of open-fire rules in 2022 for stone throwers.