Palestinian detainees are freed into a ruined Gaza that they barely recognize
Palestinian detainees have spoken of their shock at returning to a Gaza unrecognizable from the one from which they were taken, as some are released from Israeli custody with tales of brutal treatment.
Gaza is no longer here, Shadi Abu Sido, 35, shouted to cameras on Monday as he exited a bus in the southern town of Khan Younis. “It’s like a scene from Judgment Day,” he said of the destruction.
Later, he found his wife and children, whose death his captors had falsely announced to him, according to him.
Abu Sido is among 1,718 Palestinian detainees released in exchange for Israeli hostages, in addition to 250 security prisoners convicted of serious crimes, including murder. The detainees, captured since the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, had not been charged. The 20 surviving Israeli hostages held in Gaza were released as part of the exchange.
Abu Sido, a cameraman for a Lebanon-based television station who was arrested in March 2024 while filming at Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, told NBC News by phone that he was stripped naked, handcuffed and suffered a broken rib when he was first arrested 19 months ago. In prison, he says he was handcuffed and blindfolded for weeks.
“No food, no toilets, no talking, no raising your head,” he said. Those who disobeyed were “hanged on the wall and beaten,” he added.
Abu Sido said the soldiers picked on him because of his work, with one of the interrogators hitting him repeatedly in the eye so that he lost his ability to use a camera. He said he now needed specialized treatment which he said would not be available in Gaza.
Moureen Kaki, a Palestinian-American aid worker with the nongovernmental medical organization Glia, was at Nasser Hospital on Monday as released detainees arrived for health checks, most appearing gaunt, limping and shriveled.
“Everyone has been affected by scabies,” she said Tuesday evening in a video call. “There wasn’t just one person who shared the same story of torture, of being denied food, of being forced to drink cologne since the ceasefire was announced. It was everyone we spoke to who told the same stories. It was truly horrific.”
She said three people who had been imprisoned for months arrived at the hospital with new gunshot wounds that appeared to have occurred “within the last three weeks.”
Israel also returned the bodies of 120 detainees. On Thursday, Gaza’s health ministry released photos of what it said were returned bodies showing signs of torture and with several toes and fingers missing.
The Israeli military did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment on the torture and abuse allegations. In another case, in February, five Israeli reservists were charged with beating and stabbing a detainee, accused in an indictment of breaking his ribs, puncturing his lung and tearing his rectum.
Dozens of inmates released Monday were medical professionals. Among them was Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, director of Al-Awda Hospital, arrested in a December 2023 raid when he ignored IDF warnings to leave, choosing instead to stay with his patients.
Muhanna, after almost two years in detention, addressed the gathered crowd to welcome him to the hospital.
“They directly targeted medical personnel,” he said. “But we will never leave our hospitals.”
The Israeli military has previously defended strikes on hospitals, repeatedly claiming that medical facilities in Gaza were being used as bases of operations for Hamas.
According to the monitoring group Healthcare Workers Watch, there are at least 115 health workers from Gaza among the thousands of Palestinians still detained by Israel.
Among them is a prominent pediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, whose release was approved, according to his family. On Thursday, an Israeli court extended Abu Safiya’s detention by six months.
