The freed Palestinian nurse and former prisoner, Tasneem Marwan Al-Homs, daughter of imprisoned doctor Marwan Al-Homs, has revealed a shocking account of her abduction and subsequent detention in Israeli occupation prisons last month in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip.
In her first testimony following her release, Al-Homs confirmed that a gang led by collaborator Yasser Abu Shabab kidnapped her and handed her directly to Israeli occupation forces. The incident echoed her father’s own kidnapping in the same manner. She stated that her arrest aimed to exert pressure on her detained father, who remains imprisoned by Israeli occupation.
According to her testimony, the abduction was sudden and swift. She was handed over to the Israeli occupation army, who transferred her between several prisons, mostly solitary confinement cells, under harsh and degrading conditions.
On Thursday evening, the Israeli occupation army released five detainees from Gaza after months of brutal detention. They were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah for urgent medical care. Among them was Nurse Tasneem Al-Homs, who appeared exhausted and bore clear signs of mistreatment. Despite the joy her family felt upon her return, the scene remained incomplete due to the continued detention of her father, Dr. Marwan Al-Homs.
More than 10,000 Palestinians remain imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces, including women and children. The detention conditions are marked by widespread ill-treatment, poor nutrition, medical neglect, solitary confinement, and psychological abuse—practices documented by dozens of testimonies in recent years.
The continuation of such policies has created detention conditions widely regarded by human rights advocates as degrading and inhumane—especially when arrests are used as a means to pressure relatives of detainees. This practice constitutes a clear violation of international standards that prohibit collective punishment and arbitrary detention.
The cases of Tasneem and her father shed light on a disturbing rise in violations across Gaza and the West Bank, including abduction, forced transfer, detention without fair trial, torture, and mistreatment. These practices starkly contradict the core principles of international humanitarian law, which demand the protection of civilians and the humane treatment of detainees, free from coercion or abuse.
In light of these ongoing and flagrant violations, there is an urgent need to provide real protection for Palestinian civilians, open independent investigations into these abuses, and guarantee families the right to know the fate of their loved ones. This is essential to uphold the humanitarian principles enshrined in international law.
