Today, the extension period on the administrative detention of Amal Muamar Nakhleh ends. A decision from the Israeli military on whether to release him or extend his detention is currently pending. Amal has now spent the last 16 months of his life under administrative detention, including the final year of his childhood. He continues to be detained by Israeli authorities without charge or trial.
Amal, who turned 18 years old in January, is a Palestine refugee from Jalazone camp near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. He was placed under administrative detention by the Israeli Security Forces (ISF) for an initial sentence of six months on 21 January 2021. This administrative detention order was then extended for four months in May 2021 and then again in September 2021, for an additional four months. Three days prior to his 18th birthday, Israeli authorities renewed Amal's administrative detention for a third time - until 17 May 2022.
Amal suffers from a rare and serious autoimmune disease and requires regular medical monitoring. He contracted COVID-19 during a virus outbreak in the prison in late January 2022, which put him in grave medical risk. Physicians for Human Rights in Israel stated that Amal's condition requires urgent care not available in prison facilities. UNRWA, UNICEF and OHCHR have repeatedly called for Amal's immediate release and UNRWA has made specific bi-lateral appeals to Israeli authorities requesting Amal's immediate release on urgent humanitarian grounds.
The administrative detention imposed on Amal without charges and based on classified evidence is a form of arbitrary detention not permissible under public international law. It deprives him of the appropriate care required by his underlying medical condition, exposing him to increased risks of aggravation of his health.
UNRWA West Bank calls for the immediate release of Amal Nakhleh from administrative detention on urgent humanitarian grounds and is highly concerned about the ongoing arbitrary detention of this young man.
UNRWA is confronted with an increased demand for services resulting from a growth in the number of registered Palestine refugees, the extent of their vulnerability and their deepening poverty. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions and financial support has been outpaced by the growth in needs. As a result, the UNRWA programme budget, which supports the delivery of core essential services, operates with a large shortfall. UNRWA encourages all Member States to work collectively to exert all possible efforts to fully fund the Agency's programme budget. UNRWA emergency programmes and key projects, also operating with large shortfalls, are funded through separate funding portals.
UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and mandated to provide assistance and protection to some 5.7 million Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA across its five fields of operation. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip achieve their full human development potential, pending a just and lasting solution to their plight. UNRWA services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, protection and microfinance.
