Dima al-Wawi

Dima al-Wawi (born November 20, 2003) is a Palestinian from Hebron. She was the youngest girl ever imprisoned by Israel, having been sentenced to four months in jail at age 12 for attempted manslaughter after attempting to stab a security guard at the main entrance of Karmei Tzur. She was released six weeks early on April 24, 2016; following her release she said that she had intended to kill the security guard and had dreamed of being "martyred". As she approached the settlement a security guard told her to stop, while another resident told her to lie on the ground and surrender her knife; she complied. The resident then asked her whether she had come to kill Jews; she responded "yes".

According to al-Wawi, while she was being arrested she was kicked by Israeli soldiers, and a security guard stood on her back and threatened to shoot her.

Detention and conviction After being arrested she was transferred to an Israeli prison; according to al-Wawi she was initially moved to Hasharon Prison and then Ramla Prison.

During this initial period she was interrogated without either a lawyer or her parents present; at her pretrial hearing defense lawyers raised the absence of her parents, but the judge concluded that "parental presence is indeed a minor's right", but that investigators do not have to "wait endlessly for the parent to arrive", while adding that "naturally counsel for the defense retains all his arguments when a judicial proceeding is held after indictment".

Under a plea agreement with Israeli prosecutors she was convicted of attempted manslaughter and sentenced to four months in the closed hostel that she had already been transferred to, with an additional six weeks suspended sentence. She was also fined NIS 8,000. Human rights organization B'Tselem argued that she had no choice but to accept this plea deal, as an evidence based trial would have taken months during which she would have had to remain in pretrial detention.

Release On April 24, 2016, six weeks before her scheduled release date, al-Wawi was released; Israeli prison spokesperson Assaf Librati said that the early release was due to her age. Her return to Halhoul was celebrated by the residents, who draped banners, played music and honked car horns. At the celebration, she explained that she had intended to kill the security guard and had hoped that she would be killed in the process, but was quickly apprehended; "I was dreaming that I was going to be martyred".