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Released Gaza prisoners joyous despite torture and loss

More than 100 Palestinians arrive in Gaza following the ceasefire deal and the release of Israeli captives
Palestinians who were imprisoned by Israel and released in a hostage-prisoner exchange under the Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal are welcomed by family and friends as they arrive at the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis for check-ups on 1 February 2025 (Eyad Baba/AFP)
By Ahmed Aziz in Khan Younis, occupied Palestine

After a year and two months of detention, Ahmed Dababesh was released from Israeli prison.

He searched for his wife and daughter, whose faces he had forgotten after the horrors he saw while incarcerated.

On Saturday afternoon, Israel released 111 Palestinian prisoners from the Gaza Strip as part of the first phase of an exchange deal with Hamas.

The released prisoners were arrested after 7 October 2023, and their release came along with 110 other prisoners, including those serving life sentences. Their release came after Hamas freed three Israeli prisoners and provided the name of a sick Israeli prisoner.

According to Israeli data, the number of Palestinians from Gaza detained after 7 October exceeds 3,000, held in several prisons, including secret facilities established after the war.

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Dababesh quickly got off the bus that transported the released prisoners to Khan Younis in southern Gaza. He ran towards the gathered residents, searching for his wife and daughter - but they were not there.

His father and brothers were waiting for him. They embraced him with tears before informing him that 20 members of his family after his arrest, including his wife and daughter Ghena, had been killed in Israeli bombings after his arrest. 

'Special torture rooms'

Dababesh collapsed in tears, asking to see their pictures.

“I expected that they would be the first to receive me. I imagined my child innocently running towards me and kissing me. I forgot what she looked like in prison because of the horror I saw,” he told Middle East Eye.

In prison, Dababesh, like all Gaza detainees, endured both physical and psychological torture.

He was subjected to long hours of interrogation under extreme cold and heat.

"Since my arrest, for a period of six months, we were handcuffed and blindfolded all the time, even if we went to the bathroom," he said.

'The jailers were burning us with fire, heating sharp knives and burning our skin with them'

- Riyad Dahnoun, former prisoner

"We wore a summer shirt even in the extreme cold and frost for long months in Naqab prison."

Among the methods of psychological torture, jailers showed him pictures of his destroyed house but refused to tell him the fate of his family.

He also witnessed the torture of a number of other prisoners.

“The prisoners were taken into special torture rooms and trampled on a floor full of pebbles to injure their bodies. Many prisoners were killed as a result of torture,” he added.

Riyad Dahnoun, from Beit Lahia, was released in the latest prisoner exchange after being detained for more than a year in detention following his displacement at Khalifa bin Zayed school.

It was clear that he was unable to walk. When asked why, he revealed burns and ulcers on his leg as a result of the torture he endured. 

“The jailers were burning us with fire, heating sharp knives and burning our skin with them. My whole body was like this. They were heating pieces of iron and forcing us to sit on them,” he added.

The food provided to the prisoners was very bad. Dahnoun described it as "chicken food" - a small box of uncooked white rice distributed to the prisoners throughout the day.

"I weighed 79kg before arrest. Today, I weigh 46kg. The food is bad, the treatment is bad and the torture is unreasonable. I left my fellow prisoners behind, and my heart cries out in grief for them."

'A lawless state'

Doctor Muhammad al-Aqra was among those released. He seemed exhausted as he recounted his year in detention to MEE.

“Israel is a lawless state,” he said.

“We were in graves and we came out. That's all I can say - beatings, hanging, torture, breaking our limbs and endless insults. I was in a grave, not a prison."

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The prisoner does not know how long he will spend in prison, whether he will be sentenced or what charges will be fabricated against him.

Many of those released were devastated to learn that members of their families had been killed in Israeli airstrikes while they were in detention.

They left prison hoping their physical wounds and the visible scars of torture would heal - but instead, they were met with a deeper wound, one that will take a long time to heal. 

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