Palestinian prisoner gets only 30 minutes to visit teenage son battling cancer

Rajab Tahhan was given a very limited time to spend with his 19-year-old son Majd inside an Israeli hospital, where he is getting treatment for leukaemia.

Tahhan, who was cuffed from his hands and feet, was escorted by the Israeli Prison Services to the Hadassah Medical Center in West Jerusalem, Wafa news agency reported.

"The father and son cried during the entire visit, which, according to Tahhan family members, was mixed with feelings of joy and sadness at the same time," Wafa reported.

The ward was shut down for the duration of the visit.

Tahhan's short trip to his critically-ill son came following a long legal battle after which the Israeli District Court in Beersheba finally accepted to permit the short visit.

Tahhan was one of the Palestinian prisoners released as part of a prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel in 2011.

He was re-arrested by Israeli forces in 2014 and had his previous life term sentence reinstated.