DaysofPal- The Israeli occupation authorities released the sixth group of Palestinian prisoners on Saturday as part of the ongoing ceasefire agreement.
According to the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs and the Prisoners’ Club, the group includes 36 detainees serving life sentences and 333 prisoners from Gaza who were arrested following Israel’s aggression on the Strip after October 7, 2023. Of those freed, 29 are from the occupied West Bank, seven from occupied Jerusalem and its suburbs, while 24 have been forcibly deported.
Many of the released prisoners have spoken about the severe mistreatment they endured in Israeli custody. Hazem Rajab, one of those recently freed, described the brutal conditions he faced since his arrest in December 2023.
“The Israelis told us, ‘Welcome to hell,’” Rajab recalled. “It was a hell.”
“From the first day, we were beaten badly. The beatings were brutal, tough, and unbearable,” he added, speaking outside the European Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office reported that Israeli authorities “deliberately insulted and assaulted the prisoners until the moment of their release.” The organization condemned the treatment, stating that the visible signs of abuse on the prisoners’ bodies highlight the “extent of the crimes and violations inside the prisons.”
Another freed prisoner described his time in an Israeli jail as “very difficult.”
“We were tortured, and we cannot find words to describe our situation during our time in prison,” he told Al Jazeera in Khan Younis.
The condition of many released prisoners has raised alarm. According to reports, half of those released to the West Bank were immediately taken to hospitals.
Freed detainees described being subjected to extreme deprivation, including malnutrition and lack of hygiene products. Some said they were allowed to shower only once every 10 days for a single minute, under the command of former Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Reports also indicated that even in their final hours before release, prisoners were beaten and threatened with assassination if they resumed any political activity. Some of those freed in Ramallah apologized for not speaking to the media, citing threats and surveillance.
Among the sickest prisoners is Mansour Muqaddah from the occupied West Bank’s Salfit. Having spent most of his 23-year life sentence in Ramla Prison, Muqaddah is now paralyzed from the waist down due to injuries sustained during his arrest in 2002. He suffers from chronic pain and has a plastic stomach implant, with parts of his intestines exposed outside his body.
Further controversy emerged after the Israel Prison Service published images of Palestinian prisoners wearing shirts marked with the Star of David and the phrase “We do not forget, and we do not forgive” in Arabic before their release.
Hamas condemned the act as a “blatant violation of humanitarian laws and norms.”
“We condemn the occupation’s crime of placing racist slogans on the backs of our heroic prisoners and treating them with cruelty and violence,” Hamas said in a statement, contrasting Israel’s treatment of Palestinian detainees with what it described as the resistance’s “firm commitment to moral values” in handling Israeli prisoners.
Earlier on Saturday, the Al-Qassam Brigades released three Israeli prisoners as part of the sixth phase of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal. The Al-Qassam and Al-Quds Brigades handed over the three detainees, including two dual nationals (American and Russian), to the International Committee of the Red Cross east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
This exchange is part of the ongoing prisoner swap under the ceasefire agreement, which took effect on January 19.
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