Yaman Is Fifteen: the Youngest Prisoner in Tubas

Yaman Husam Mustafa Bani Odeh, a 15-year-old ninth-grader from Tamun in the Tubas governorate, has been in Israeli detention since March 15, 2026. No charges have been filed. No verdict issued, no release date set. He is the youngest prisoner from his governorate.

He is one of roughly 350 Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons at any given time. They should be in school. Instead, they sit in interrogation rooms. For many of them, comfort is a warm bed, edible food, and a cup of water.

The night soldiers came for Yaman was already soaked in blood. Hours earlier, Israeli forces had killed Khaled Bani Odeh, his wife, and their two sons in Tamun. That same night, troops stormed Yaman’s home and arrested him, the Prisoners’ Media Office said, citing his family.

His older sister suffered a broken foot in the raid. Soldiers smashed the family’s furniture, as they do in nearly every raid on a Palestinian home.

Since his arrest, Yaman has been shuffled between interrogation rooms and military courts. His hearings keep getting postponed. Still no charge. No sentence. No timeline.

He is also the brother of a martyr.

Rayan, Yaman’s older brother, was killed on May 25, 2024, when Israeli aircraft targeted a group of young men during a raid on Tamun. He was 17, weeks from sitting his Tawjihi exams.

The family had two sons among four sisters. One is dead. The other is in an Israeli cell. Their mother lost one child and waits for the other.

Yaman’s childhood is running out behind bars.