Wounded Palestinian teen shackled to her Israeli bed

A 15-year-old Palestinian girl, hospitalized in Meir Hospital in Kfar Sava for three bullet wounds suffered when she allegedly attacked soldiers at a checkpoint, is handcuffed to her hospital bed, in contravention of hospital regulations.

The girl, Riham Assad Mussa was hospitalized on Sunday after being shot at a checkpoint by soldiers who said she tried to attack them. Health Ministry regulations forbid shackling patients, unless it is ordered by a security agency and does not disrupt the medical treatment. The Shin Bet and IDF so far have rebuffed doctors' requests to have the handcuffs removed.

The girl was hit by three bullets and during surgery, part of her large intestine was removed, two bullets remain in her body. She was first put in the pediatric ward, but when doctors insisted on the handcuffs being removed she was moved to the surgery department. Two women soldiers stand guard at all times around her.

Physicians for Human Rights' Anat Litvia on Tuesday wrote to Dr. Ehud Aharonson, chief administrator at Meir Hospital, asking that he immediately have the handcuffs removed.

"It is unreasonable to think that a 15-year-old girl, who was hit in the kidney, had part of her intestine surgically removed, is attached to an intravenous solution, and two bullets are still in her body, will escape from the hospital by overcoming the IDF guards - or that she poses any danger to the doctors or the other patients," wrote Litvia.

The hospital has asked the Shin Bet and IDF to allow the removal of the handcuffs, but to no avail. Prof. Avinaom Reches, head of the Israel Medical Association's Ethics Council, also tried to intervene, but so far, to no avail.