As part of the exchange agreement, several child prisoners from Gaza were freed yesterday, Thursday, and testified that they had been routinely tortured physically and psychologically in Israeli occupation prisons.
In startling testimonies that were released by the Anadolu Agency, these kids described how they were subjected to abuse, humiliation, and denial of their most fundamental rights, such as access to food and healthcare.
Systematic Physical and Psychological Torture
Speaking about the degrading circumstances he endured while in custody, the young inmate Salah al-Muqayyad said: “They fought us psychologically and physically.” Four elderly men suffered from strokes that left them immobile, and they received no medical care.
“The elderly were dying of hunger, and we were sleeping on the floor without a blanket,” he continued.
According to the released children’s testimonies, these practices—which are categorised as forms of torture and ill-treatment that are illegal under international law—did not target a particular age group but rather all detainees.
Ahmed Khreis, a young man who was taken into custody from Khan Yunis on January 25, 2024, acknowledged that he had witnessed “merciless torture, and saw with his own eyes detainees dying under its pressure.”
According to Khreis, one of the ways the Israeli occupation investigators intimidated them was by bringing “severed hands and fingers, perhaps belonging to Palestinian prisoners, to intimidate us.”
“My feet were injured, and they did not provide me with any treatment, and I did not see the sun during my entire detention,” he added, describing the cruel conditions he endured in the Negev prison. There was no water or food, and there were no restrooms either.
Abuse and humiliation
The child Muhammad Al-Saqa, who was taken into custody on March 3, 2024, described the severity of his ordeal as follows: “The situation was very bad.. beatings, oppression, humiliation. I cannot describe it in words.”
The detainees were told by the occupation soldiers, he continued, “Gaza has been annihilated, and you will not return to it.”
He stated: “We thought we were born in prison, we no longer remember our lives before the arrest.” He emphasised that the extended period of incarceration under these circumstances left him feeling as though he had never led a normal life before.
Ahmed Samar, a minor who was taken into custody on December 14, 2024, spoke of the brutality he experienced while incarcerated in the “Megiddo” and “Sde Teiman” facilities, where he was made to spend extended periods of time in agonising positions.
“They used to break the detainees’ legs, and there were prisoners who were killed under torture,” he continued.
As part of the first phase of the ceasefire and exchange agreement, several freed Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, entered the Gaza Strip Thursday evening through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Following an incarceration period characterised by torture and mistreatment, the inmates were moved to the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Yunis for medical examinations.
In flagrant defiance of international norms, the Israeli occupation army had detained these prisoners during the war of extermination it began on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, as part of a mass arrest campaign that targeted civilians, including children.
Human rights organisations and international courts must act immediately to ensure that those responsible for these violations are held accountable and to put an end to the policy of impunity that the Israeli occupation has long enjoyed. The testimonies provided by the freed children are powerful evidence of the scope of the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against Palestinian prisoners.
