DayofPal– Released Palestinian prisoners shared harrowing accounts of their suffering in Israeli prisons, just hours after returning to the Gaza Strip as part of the fourth batch in the prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Bassem Al-Najjar, who spent 140 days in Israeli prisons, described the brutal conditions he was subjected to.
“Every day was full of repression, searches, and humiliation. I had a heart attack due to the torture, spent four days on an electric chair, had hot water poured on me, my nails were ripped out, and we were beaten with pipes, breaking our arms,” Al-Najjar said.
He went on to describe how the Israeli forces would strip the prisoners of their clothes and blankets during the rain, set dogs to urinate on them, and he witnessed six of his fellow detainees die due to torture.
“The experience of captivity is worse than death,” said freed prisoner Abdul Hakim Al-Shafi, who was arrested during the Israeli assault on Gaza.
He spoke of the severe health issues he suffered, such as spasms and intense back pain, highlighting the unimaginable suffering prisoners endured, particularly during the war.
Freed prisoner Mohammad Nabil, who spent nearly 15 months in detention, recounted, “We lived through truly horrific days—too painful to describe, with diseases like scabies ravaging our bodies.”
For Osama Fathi, who spent a year in Israeli custody, captivity was far worse than death itself.
He expressed, “That year felt like ten. I wished I had been martyred instead of being imprisoned. Every step we took was met with torture—from food, water, and illness to sleep deprivation. We suffered from scabies for an entire year. As a pharmacist, I knew the terrible consequences.”
Meanwhile, Majdi Riyad, a prisoner freed after 18 years, sent a special salute to the resistance and the people of Gaza for their sacrifices in the fight for the freedom of the prisoners.
On Saturday, Israel released 183 Palestinians, including 18 sentenced to life terms, 54 with high sentences, including a man from Aleppo, and 111 from Gaza who were detained after October 7, 2023, in exchange for the release of three Israeli prisoners in Gaza.
On January 19, a ceasefire agreement came into effect, consisting of three stages, each lasting 42 days. The first stage involved negotiations for the second and third stages, with Egypt, Qatar, and the United States facilitating the process.
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