West Bank boy reunited with mother

Ahmad( top left) has left his brother and sisters behind

One of four Welsh children trapped in the West Bank after their Palestinian father refused to let them return to Britain has arrived in Wales after a dramatic escape.

Ahmad Ihbasheh, 15, along with his brother and two sisters had spent the last three-and-a-half years living in the war-torn city of Nablus.

I had to pass through a lot of check points and a lot of people asked me I was - they even searched me

Ahmad Ihbasheh

But the teenager fled across the Palestinian city and through army checkpoints to reach the British Consulate in Jerusalem.

He has now been reunited with his mother Eileen Sutton, who has been awarded custody of the children by a British court, at their home in Barry, south Wales

Ahmad said he was able to make his journey across the war zone after convincing his father into letting him have his British passport.

"I left the house early in the morning and went to a bus company who agreed to take me to Jerusalem," said Ahmad.

"I had to pass through a lot of checkpoints and a lot of people asked me I was - they even searched me.

Eileen Sutton: 'Stunned'

"I had my British passport after I tricked my father into leaving it with me.

"When I reached Ramallah I took a taxi into Jerusalem because the bus couldn't go through the border to Jerusalem," he added.

Ahmad arrived at the British Consulate who were already aware of the custody issue surrounding the children.

His mother Eileen Sutton said: "I got a telephone call from the British Consulate - I was stunned.

"They said 'We have your son here, what do want us to do with him?'

He has grown into such a wonderful young man

Eileen Sutton, mother

"I said 'send him home please!'

"It was unreal, I was sitting on a boat at the time and it was really wacky.

"He has grown into such a wonderful young man.

"When he left he was a little boy, but now he is a man almost," she said.

Conflict

During his time in Nablus, Ahmad worked in the family run bakery and had to live with the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis.

For 22 days last April their home was taken over by the Israeli Defence Force.

The roof of the house, which commands a strategic view over the old city below, was used to fire at and fight Palestinian militants.

The front door was smashed open with sledgehammers and the house searched by armed Israeli soldiers before the shooting began.

Despite her joy at seeing her son again, Miss Sutton is very concerned about the safety of her three other children - Fatima, 17, Maryam, 12 and Amjad, 10 - who remain in Nablus.

"I am very worried and the conditions are far worse that what I thought they were," she said.