By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Politics Discussion - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ 13 hours ago

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.”



Around the Network
SvennoJ 13 hours ago

‘Our people’s goal will remain to unify the Arab nation to liberate Palestine’: Oldest freed prisoner

Nael Barghouti, who was the oldest Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody before his release overnight, has sent a message of gratitude to the people of Gaza for resisting the Israeli occupation.

In a video verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, he said: “We address all our people in the world and the free people of the world that our people’s goal will remain to unify the Arab nation to liberate Palestine from the sea to the river.”

Barghouti, who was born in the occupied West Bank town of Kobar on October 23, 1957, spent more than 40 years in Israeli captivity. He was first released as part of a swap in 2011 and rearrested in 2014.


Israel has long history of rearresting released Palestinian prisoners

Nael Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian political prisoner, is one of the 47 who were rearrested after their exchange for an Israeli soldier more than a decade ago, says Basil Farraj, assistant professor at the occupied West Bank’s Birzeit University.

“He spent nearly 45 years in captivity. Now, he is among the prisoners deported to Egypt,” he told Al Jazeera from occupied East Jerusalem.

He pointed to the broader nature of what the Gaza ceasefire has entailed, which includes the deportation of at least 229 Palestinians into Egypt primarily, with more being sorted for deportation to other countries.

“It’s very hard to believe Israel’s commitment to any ceasefire or prisoner exchange agreement, because historically, Israel has continuously rearrested Palestinians who were released as part of deals,” Farraj said.

“Most recently, there was the November 2023 truce, after which Israel rearrested many children released as part of the agreement.”

He said Israeli authorities also put limitations on released prisoners who are not deported, including in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.


Israeli authorities summon released Palestinians for questioning in East Jerusalem: Report

Wafa is reporting that several Palestinian prisoners released during the seventh round of prisoner-captive exchanges have been told to visit the al-Qishla investigation centre in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem tomorrow.

The agency said the prisoners released earlier who had already been called in for investigations had been banned from entering the Old City, which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.



SvennoJ 5 hours ago

UNRWA say two million in Gaza received food assistance

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says it has made “unparalleled progress” in providing humanitarian aid since the ceasefire in Gaza began last month.

In a statement, the agency revealed it provided food assistance to some two million people and restored health services for nearly 180,000.

“This reflects UNRWA’s commitment to supporting families in Gaza through this unprecedented humanitarian crisis,” Sam Rose, UNRWA acting director of Gaza affairs, said.

Moreover, the UN agency said it distributed vital supplies, including blankets, mattresses and tents, to more than 500,000 people.

“For the first time since the war began, UNRWA has been able to deliver aid and services at scale, reducing the suffering of 2 million people,” Rose added.




GCC condemns Israeli strikes on Syria

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has condemned Israeli attacks on Syria and urged the international community to take “urgent and decisive action” to stop the “blatant violations”.

In a statement, GCC Secretary-General Jasem Albudaiwi denounced the Israeli military’s air attacks on Tuesday, which targeted Syrian military sites, vehicles, and ammunition depots.

Albudaiwi strongly condemned the attacks, calling them “a flagrant violation of international agreements and laws that threaten regional security and stability”.

He asserted that Israel’s ongoing aggression undermines peace efforts and fuels instability.

 

Israeli drone attack hits southern Lebanon

An Israeli drone air attack hit the town of Deir Qanoun en-Nahr in southern Lebanon, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent has said.

Earlier, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported that one person was killed and another injured in two Israeli air strikes that hit a car in the city of Hermel, in the east of the country.

In the past weeks, Israel has been striking areas in south and east Lebanon despite a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah that came into force in late November.

The attacks have been less frequent compared with more than a year of cross-border hostilities, including two months of an all-out war, but recently they have been recurring more often.



Iran says Israeli threats of military force are ‘outrageous’

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has slammed Israeli threats as “outrageous” after Israel’s foreign minister warned a “military option” might be needed to halt Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

In an interview with Politico, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Iran had enriched enough uranium to build a “couple of bombs” and that time was running out.

“I think that in order to stop a nuclear Iranian program before it will be weaponized, a reliable military option should be on the table,” he said in the article published on Wednesday.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the remarks as “outrageous and irrational”.

“The Israeli regime’s FM and other officials keep threatening Iran with military action while the West continues to blame Iran for its defence capability,” he said in a post on X.

Baqaei added that in a “region scourged by an occupying entity,” referring to Israel, “it is only responsible and essential to maximise our defence capabilities”.

 



SvennoJ 5 hours ago

The Israeli army releases investigation into October 7 attack

Here are the key findings of the Israeli army’s probe into the failures that paved the way to the Hamas-led attack, as reported by Israeli media:

  • The military misread Hamas’s intentions, believing that the Palestinian group did not pose a significant threat and was not interested in a large-scale war with Israel.
  • The army assumed that Israel’s high-tech border fence would have thwarted any threat.
  • The Military Intelligence Directorate dismissed information showing Hamas intended to launch a wide-scale attack against Israel over several years as unrealistic.
  • The directorate assumed Hamas’s late leader Yahya Sinwar was not seeking a major escalation with Israel.
  • The probe assessed that Hamas decided to launch the attack in April 2022. By September the same year, it was at 85 percent readiness and in May 2023 it decided to launch the attack on October 7.
  • On the eve of the attack, army’s top officials identified five signs of unusual activity but dismissed the threat of an imminent assault.
  • The perception that Hamas did not want war guided decision-makers away from taking action that might have thwarted the attack.
  • Military planners had envisioned that, at worst, Hamas could stage a ground invasion from up to eight border points, one military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, told The Associated Press. In fact, Hamas had more than 60 attack routes.
  • Intelligence assessed in the aftermath of the attack has shown Hamas came close to staging the offensive on three earlier occasions, but delayed it for unknown reasons, the official said.
  • The Israeli military official said intelligence shows that Yahya Sinwar had begun planning it as early as 2017.
  • For the first three hours after the attack, Hamas fighters marauded through border communities and a music festival with little resistance.
  • It took hours for the military to regain control and days until the area was fully cleared of fighters.
  • According to the first official, the report blamed the military for being overconfident in its knowledge and not showing enough doubt in its core concepts and beliefs.

Israel army acknowledges ‘complete failure’ on October 7 in military probe

The internal Israeli army probe into Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack acknowledged the military’s “complete failure” to prevent the assault, which killed hundreds of Israelis, a military official said.

“October 7 was a complete failure, the [military] failed in fulfilling its mission to protect Israeli civilians,” the official said, briefing reporters about the report’s contents, on condition of anonymity.

“Too many civilians died that day asking themselves in their hearts or out loud, where was the [Israeli military]?”

“The [military] failed to protect Israeli citizens. The Gaza Division was overrun in the early hours of the war, as terrorists took control and carried out massacres in the communities and roads in the area,” the military said in the summary of the report released to journalists.


Will the Israeli army probe lead to political accountability?

The findings could pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a widely demanded broader inquiry to examine the political decision-making that preceded the attack, which triggered the war in Gaza.

Many Israelis believe the mistakes of October 7 extend beyond the military, and they blame Netanyahu for what they view as a failed strategy of deterrence and containment in the years leading up to the attack.

That strategy included allowing Qatar to send money into Gaza and sidelining Hamas’s rival, the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority.

The prime minister has not taken responsibility, saying he will answer tough questions only after the war, which has been paused for nearly six weeks by a tenuous ceasefire.

Despite public pressure, including from the families of the roughly 1,200 people killed in the October 7 attack and the 251 taken as captives into Gaza, Netanyahu has resisted calls for a commission of inquiry.

Israel army chief takes ‘full responsibility’, after critical October 7 probe

Israel’s army chief has said he takes full responsibility for failing to prevent the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, after the findings of an internal military probe released today.

“The responsibility is mine. I was the commander of the army on October 7th, and I also bear the full responsibility for all of you,” Herzi Halevi, who had already resigned last month citing the October 7 “failure”, said in a video statement released by the military.



SvennoJ 5 hours ago

Main events on February 27th

  • Egyptian officials said negotiations between Israel and Hamas on the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire have begun in Cairo, as Israel confirmed it had sent a delegation to see if there’s common ground for the second phase.
  • Iran’s Foreign Ministry has slammed Israeli threats as “outrageous” after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar warned a “military option” might be needed to halt Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
  • Israel’s army chief said he takes full responsibility for failing to prevent the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks, after the findings of an internal military probe were released on Thursday.
  • At least 13 people were injured in a car ramming attack in Israel, including a police officer, police have said.
  • An Israeli drone air attack hit the town of Deir Qanoun en-Nahr in southern Lebanon, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent has said, in the latest Israeli violation of the fragile ceasefire there.
  • Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, kept at arm’s length by Washington under former President Joe Biden, will meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington next Wednesday.

Gaza ceasefire future uncertain as Israel expands West Bank assault

The future of the Gaza ceasefire remains deeply uncertain as the expiration of the first phase approaches on Saturday, according to Roy Casagrande, a professor of government at Austin Community College.

Further doubt is cast on the future of negotiations as Israel dramatically escalates its military operations in the occupied West Bank, he said.

“Many [have] suggested that we should have phase one extended instead of moving on to phase two,” he told Al Jazeera.


Israeli military opens fire on vehicles in Khan Younis

Israeli forces have “opened fire” on more than one vehicle near the town of Abasan, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run news outlet, Al-Aqsa TV.

No casualties have been reported so far.

The attack is the latest Israeli violation of a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza, which is set to come to an end on Saturday unless an extension is negotiated.