Released prisoner recounts conditions in Israeli prisons
Mohammed Abu Amsha, who arrived in Gaza’s Khan Younis with the latest batch of released Palestinian prisoners, says he was getting one “very bad” meal per day and was allowed to take a shower once a month.
“They used to beat and humiliate us. Sick people got no medical treatment. There were a lot of skin diseases in prisons and we did not get to change the clothes since the first day of our detention,” he told Al Jazeera.
A Palestinian prisoner rests on a hospital bed at the European Hospital
Palestinians released to Gaza severely wounded, some are missing limbs
Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian detainees in Gaza, and they are right now in the European Hospital, being reunited with their family members.
But what is really shocking regarding the scenes that we have seen is that those Palestinian prisoners have come out from the Israeli jails psychologically and physically exhausted.
We have seen a number of Palestinian prisoners who lost their limbs, and others are suffering from severe injuries to their bodies due to aggressive torture that took place in Israeli detention camps and centres.
Lots of them, as we have been sharing conversations with them, confirmed that they have witnessed some of the worst methods of torture at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces.
But they have also shown a unique display of resilience and strength and the scene here at the moment is very emotional, very overwhelming.
Many family members have broken down in tears after seeing their loved ones.
Palestinian prisoner recalls ‘torture’ of leg amputation in Israeli jail
In the last prisoner swap of phase one of the Gaza ceasefire, Israel released hundreds of Palestinians, several with missing limbs. A 21-year-old, previously released detainee recalls having his leg forcibly amputated and enduring “torture, medical testing, and mistreatment” in Israeli prison.
‘My daughters don’t recognise me’: Released detainee from Gaza
We’ve been speaking to Alaa al-Bayari, a former Palestinian detainee who has reunited with his family in Gaza City.
Al-Bayari says he has mixed emotions: While he was happy to see his family, he is upset because his young daughters can barely recognise him. He said he spent one year in Israeli prison and experienced torture, including beatings and starvation.
“I’ve been beaten, they left us under the rain, they kept us naked, they threw water at us, electricity was used against us,” al-Bayari said, adding that many prisoners picked up diseases while in prison.
“I have seen one of the prisoners who lost 80 kilograms in one year,” he said, adding he could be forced to go three days without sun and only pieces of bread, half a cucumber and half a glass of water.
He said he was grateful that he was released but also “deeply sad because I left so many prisoners inside the Israeli prisons; they are suffering. Hopefully, they will all be released.”
‘Our joy is not complete’
Eyad al-Saudi, who is from Gaza, expressed relief at his release, but said his joy is incomplete as many others remain imprisoned in difficult conditions.
“During the first period in jail, we were handcuffed and blindfolded for 90 days, you see no one and no one sees us. And we used to sit on our knees or our buttocks for 18 or 20 hours,” he told Reuters.
“But we still have other prisoners (locked up); our joy is not complete, because there are prisoners left behind. Our joy will not be complete except by clearing the prisons from the young people detained in them,” he said. “Praise be to God, we feel great, but the joy is not complete, why? Because there are young men who are still imprisoned and suffering. The period of captivity was not just being held captive – it was torture, torture beyond description.”
‘We have been dug out of our own graves’
Yahya Shrida, a Palestinian prisoner who was released to Ramallah, described Israeli prisons as graveyards.
“We have been taken out of suffering as if we have been dug out of our own graves. No prisoner has had the experience of having their own release delayed twice,” he said.
“What we have been through is a situation that the mountains can’t carry. It is very hard to explain; it is very hard to talk about what we have been through.”
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