No means in Gaza to treat released Palestinians requiring medical care
Throughout the day, we’ve seen a lot of excitement and happiness. People here are overjoyed by the release of Palestinians kidnapped and detained by the Israeli military over the course of the past two years.
But we also saw some people falling to their knees and crying with disappointment when they found out that their family members, their sons, their daughters, were not among those released.
Now, the released Palestinians are returning to a Gaza they do not recognise. They are coming back to areas where there are no homes, no public facilities, no schools, and no medical facilities.
We cannot overstate how important and critical medical facilities are at this particular time.
Many of the released Palestinians need immediate medical attention, but unfortunately, the remaining medical facilities do not have the resources to provide the needed care due to the bombardment, the deliberate prevention and obstruction of medical aid and supplies. Let alone the many times these hospitals were stormed and destroyed by the Israeli military.
This leaves no options for people here but to seek medical attention elsewhere. And many are now lining up now for medical evacuation.
Gaza as of this moment is completely different to the Gaza of two years ago. There’s absolute destruction and devastation of all means of life to the point it feels it’s unlivable, and it’s quite hard to sustain life here. So there’s a lot of uncertainty, although mixed with a little bit of hope. But uncertainty is dominating every conversation as of this moment across the Gaza Strip.
‘We were in a slaughterhouse, not a prison’
We’ve been hearing from Palestinians released from Israeli detention in Khan Younis.
Abdallah Abu Rafe described his release as a “great feeling”. “We were in a slaughterhouse, not a prison. Unfortunately, we were in a slaughterhouse called the Ofer prison. Many young men are still there. The situation in the Israeli prisons is very difficult. There are no mattresses. They always take the mattresses away. The food situation is difficult. Things are difficult there,” he said.
Another released detainee, Yasin Abu Amra, described conditions in Israeli jails as “very, very bad”. “In terms of the food, the oppression, and the beatings, everything was bad. There was no food or drink. I hadn’t eaten for four days. They gave me two sweets here, and I ate them,” he said.
Saed Shubair, who was also freed on Monday, said he did not know how to describe his feelings. “The feeling is indescribable,” he said. “Seeing the sun without bars is an indescribable feeling. My hands are free from the handcuffs. Freedom is priceless.”
As we’ve been reporting, Israel released some 250 Palestinians serving life and long sentences and some 1,718 others who had been taken from Gaza over the course of the war there. The United Nations had considered the latter group as forcibly disappeared.
People greet freed Palestinian prisoners as they arrive in the Gaza Strip after their release from Israeli jails, outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, October 13
