‘Beated before release’: Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners casts a shadow over celebrations

The happiness and relief he feels Palestinians after the release of 90 prisoners from Israeli detention within the framework of the ceasefire agreement on the cessation of hostilities Gaza was tempered by concern about the conditions in which they were kept.

Palestinian prisoners were seen emaciated, malnourished, and in some cases unrecognizable compared to who they were before they entered Israeli prisons.

The Israeli government is under occupation West coast released 90 prisoners, including women and children, in the first batch of releases since the ceasefire agreement.

Khalida Jarrara key figure in the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), emerged from prison with gray hair after months of solitary confinement.

The 61-year-old lawmaker, feminist and prisoner rights advocate has been under administrative arrest – a policy that allows Israeli authorities to hold people without charge or trial – since December 26, 2023.

In August, she was transferred to solitary confinement as “a form of punishment,” according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, and held for six months in a 1-meter by 1.5-meter cell at Ayalon Prison (Ramla).

Palestinian political leader Khaleda Jarrar was released as part of a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Jarrar has been under administrative arrest since December 2023 and has reportedly spent the last six months in solitary confinement pic.twitter.com/Q5aDobaKNb

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) January 20, 2025

According to Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi, all the prisoners released on Monday endured “gross misconduct including verbal and physical abuse, deprivation and isolation.”

“Israeli prisons are notorious for their abuse and torture of Palestinian prisoners. We rejoice in the release of our captive women and children and look forward to the release of the remaining 11,000. Freedom is priceless,” she added in a post on X.

Ablaa Sadat, who was held in Ofer prison under administrative arrest, told Middle East Eye that living conditions in Israeli prisons were “absolutely inhumane.”

“From the lack of food and medical care to the treatment (of prisoners), it’s terrible. They try to break the self-awareness of the prisoners and make us feel less than them, that they are above us and have power over us… They try to break our sense of self and our pride,” Sadat. said

“The moment of freedom is what I wish for all prisoners. Freedom is what is truly priceless”

– Ahmad Sadat, a former Palestinian prisoner

The former detainee, whose husband Ahmad Sadat is still in an Israeli prison, said this level of abuse had “never been seen in the entire history of the (Palestine) occupation.”

Just a week after her incarceration, Sadaat said she was brought in for questioning under the guise of a medical examination, where she was later charged with endangering the security of the prison and Israel as a whole. Then she was completely isolated for two weeks in a cell measuring two by two meters.

“They sprayed gas in the prison cells before handcuffing us, blindfolding us and forcing us to kneel in the prison courts,” she said, adding that the abuses had intensified since the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

“The moment of freedom is what I wish for all prisoners. Freedom is something that is truly priceless,” she said.

Palestinian news agency Arab48 reported that the days leading up to Monday were particularly difficult for those released, noting that they did not know they would be released so soon.

Yasmin Abu Surour, one of the released prisoners, said they were completely isolated in the week before the ceasefire agreement took effect, and the prison administration cut them off from the outside world.

“We’ve been without news for a week and we don’t know what’s happening on the street. Until Sunday morning, we weren’t sure it was freedom day,” she said.

Ill-treatment and violence in Israeli prisons

Several former prisoners spoke of daily abuse, violence and humiliation even hours before they were scheduled to be released.

Amal Shujayafrom Ramallah, said they were stripped and searched almost daily in their rooms, left with little food and denied medical care.

“It has not been easy, and this issue of the violation of the privacy of the detained women should be highlighted because it has caused us a lot of damage,” she told reporters after her release.

Another prisoner Dunya Ishteyewas upset when she was seen hugging her mother.

“I was dying, they were killing me,” she cried.

Ragad AmrA 23-year-old girl from Hebron said that in the hours before her release, female prisoners suffered torture, beatings and insults, and some were even pulled by the hair by Israeli officers.

She recalled that they were also threatened by the prison administration.

They were later transferred to what she described as a cold “metal cage” post and transferred to the notorious Suggest prison.

There, they were forced to lie on the floor, shown explicit videos of violence, beaten, stripped and interrogated once again.

“They say that the Israeli prisoners were in good condition and even gave gifts… But they pulled our hair, beat us, humiliated us,” she said.

“I’ll never forget that side-by-side comparison.”