As part of ceasefire accord between Hamas and Israel, 183 Palestinians were released from Israeli jails. They emerged wearing stained grey prison jumpsuits and exhibiting signs of years of detention.
Several of them looked tired and frail as they made the short walk from the bus to the European Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, before being cheered through the crowd and reunited with their families.
“Every time prisoners are released, we find the prisoners’ bodies reflecting the level of crimes committed against them, including torture that is unprecedented in its level after October 7, starvation crimes, systematic medical crimes, and the infection of a number of them with scabies, in addition to the severe beatings that the prisoners were subjected to before their release, which continued for days according to many of their testimonies, and which in some cases led to rib fractures,” the organisation said in a statement.
“The Prisoner’s Society confirms again that the occupation practices organized terrorism against the released prisoners and their families, through several methods that have been monitored, the most prominent of which are the severe beatings that the released prisoners were subjected to, and the threats that reached the point of killing if any reception party was organized or if the family showed any sign of reception.”
One of the released Palestinians stated, “For the past 15 months, we were exposed to the most brutal torture … the Israelis treated us in inhumane ways. They treated animals better than us.”
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Red Cross staff expressed outrage at the way the Israel Prison Service handled the released prisoners from Ketziot Prison on Saturday.
According to their accounts, Palestinian detainees were released handcuffed with their hands above their heads with a band that read: “The people of eternity does not forget.”
Hamas announced the “abuse and torture” Palestinian prisoners endured “confirms the ugliness of what [they] are subjected to” in Israeli prisons.
It added in a statement that its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, did not fail to provide the necessary healthcare to Israeli captives despite the conditions in Gaza, including Israel’s relentless bombing and attacks that killed more than 47,000 people in the besieged enclave since October 2023.
“The good physical and psychological condition of the enemy’s prisoners proves the values of our resistance and its moral commitment towards the prisoners, while the criminal occupation commits the most heinous violations against our prisoners in jails,” the statement read.
Sources told Al Jazeera that one Palestinian, Hussam Shahin, will be transferred to hospital after he underwent surgery without anaesthesia while in jail.
Under the terms of the ceasefire deal, 33 captives held by Hamas in Gaza are to be freed in the first six weeks of the truce in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians, many of whom have been serving life sentences in Israel.
