Health Deterioration in Custody: The Case of Qusai and Odai Alyan

Qusai Abed Mahmoud Alyan has lost about 16 kilograms in Gilboa prison, where hygiene is nonexistent and food is scarce. Illness has worn his body down.

The 27-year-old from Issawiya in Jerusalem has had a lung condition since birth, his family told the Prisoners’ Media Office. Before he was arrested, regular medical care kept it stable. Every two weeks he got two injections for his lungs, and he kept up with his other medication.

That changed after his arrest on December 14, 2021.

Medical neglect and irregular access to treatment have made his condition worse. On top of the lung problems, he now has asthma and shortness of breath, and he needs prescription glasses.

“Qusai has had scabies for a year and two months, and he still hasn’t recovered,” his family says. “He also has many painful boils all over his body. He already has a weak immune system, which makes it even harder for him to bear this disease.”

Qusai was first held in Megiddo prison and was beaten and insulted every time he was moved after that: to Nafha, then Shatta, and finally Gilboa.

His younger brother, Odai Abed Mahmoud Alyan, 23, was arrested on March 17, 2024. He was sentenced to five years and fined 5,000 shekels. He is now held in Nafha prison.

“Odai lost a lot of weight in detention,” his family says. “When he was arrested, he weighed 135 kilograms. Today he weighs 70 kilograms.”

Their mother carries both wounds.

When Qusai was sentenced, her heart could not take it. She had learned that her son would be gone from his family for 14 and a half years. The news left her with a heart problem that had to be treated with electric shocks. Years later came a second wound. Odai was arrested, and she started a new countdown. Five years, this time.

“If it were one wound, I would try to bear it,” she says. “But there are two wounds. What am I supposed to do with a mother’s heart?”

She cannot tell which worry weighs on her more: Qusai’s illnesses, eating away at his body while he is denied treatment, or Odai’s suffering and the years of his youth passing behind bars.

Patience kept her going. Now the wounds run too deep for her heart to wait any longer. When will the two brothers come home, back to their tired mother’s arms?