Mahmoud Abu Foul heard his mom’s voice after eight months in Israeli detention, however couldn’t see her face.
A 28-year-old from northern Gaza, Abu Foul was arrested from Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in late December and imprisoned in Israeli detention services, the place he says guards tortured and beat him so severely that he misplaced his sight.
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He was launched this week as a part of a United States-brokered ceasefire deal that has seen practically 2,000 Palestinian detainees let loose from Israeli jails, many bearing visible signs of abuse.
Abu Foul, who had already misplaced his leg in a 2015 Israeli bombing, advised Al Jazeera he endured relentless torture throughout his imprisonment. At Sde Teiman jail, a facility different detainees describe as “the jail that breaks males”, Abu Foul endured repeated beatings and torture.
At some point, guards struck him on the top with such drive that he fell unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he found he had misplaced his sight, he mentioned.
“I saved asking for medical therapy, however they solely gave me one sort of eye drops, which did nothing,” he mentioned. “My eyes saved tearing always, with discharge and ache, however nobody cared.”
He tried a starvation strike to demand therapy however mentioned jail authorities didn’t reply to his calls for.
When Abu Foul was lastly launched and transferred to Nasser Hospital, he waited anxiously for his household. He had heard northern Gaza was devastated and feared the worst. Then his mom arrived.
“Once I heard her voice, I hugged her tightly,” he mentioned. “I couldn’t see her, however simply listening to her was value the entire world.”
Abu Foul now lives in a tent close to ruins, nonetheless with out therapy for his eyes, and is searching for assist to journey overseas for medical care.
His account aligns with a rising physique of proof documenting systematic abuse in Israeli prisons. Lots of the Palestinians launched this week emerged emaciated or with seen accidents. One prisoner had misplaced nearly half his body weight throughout detention.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights documented testimonies from 100 former detainees held between October 2023 and 2024, discovering that torture was systematic throughout all Israeli jail services, not simply infamous websites like Sde Teiman.
All have been held incommunicado with out entry to judges, legal professionals or members of the family.
Israel has returned no less than 100 our bodies of Palestinians who died in detention. Medical sources advised Al Jazeera they discovered proof of abuse on among the corpses, and a few indicated potential executions.
“They didn’t die naturally, they have been executed whereas restrained,” mentioned Dr Munir al-Bursh, director-general of Gaza’s Well being Ministry.
The United Nations estimates that no less than 75 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons since October 2023.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem described the jail system final 12 months as a “community of torture camps” the place detainees face systematic bodily abuse, are denied meals and medical care, and endure sexual violence.
Regardless of a whole bunch of reported abuse circumstances since October 2023, Israeli authorities have introduced indictments in solely two incidents, with no jail service personnel charged, based on the Public Committee In opposition to Torture in Israel (PCATI), an Israeli rights group documenting torture.
Dr Ruchama Marton, founding father of Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, says her decades-long marketing campaign uncovered the usage of torture in Israel however has didn’t cease it. “Perhaps individuals didn’t deny it any extra, however in observe it grew to become normalized,” she advised Haaretz.
Israel’s far-right Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the jail service, has defended the cruel therapy of Palestinian prisoners and mentioned “summer time camps and persistence for the terrorists are over”.
Ben-Gvir has additionally been filmed taunting high-profile Palestinian political chief and detainee Marwan Barghouti.
Earlier this week, Barghouti’s son mentioned he fears for his father’s life in Israeli jail amid studies from witnesses that he was crushed by guards final month.
In an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday, Arab Barghouti accused Israel of concentrating on his father as a result of he’s a unifying determine amongst Palestinians.
The household advised media shops this week that they’d obtained testimonies from Palestinian detainees launched as a part of the Gaza ceasefire deal that Barghouti was crushed by guards in mid-September as he was being transferred between two Israeli prisons.
About 9,000 Palestinian prisoners stay in Israeli jails, many with out trial or any correct authorized course of. Israel has denied allegations of systematic abuse however has not supplied proof to counter the claims.
The Israeli navy and jail service didn’t reply to requests for remark.
