There is No Peace in Gaza
I was particularly shocked by one detail. During interrogation, Khaled was accused of being a member of Islamic Jihad, which he again denied. “I’m just a farmer,” he replied. Khaled’s greatest fear was that his wife and children, one of whom was awaiting surgery, would be killed in an airstrike. He told me that an Israeli intelligence officer had shown Khaled a photo of them. “It was a photo of our family insurance card,” Khaled told me. He didn’t know how the officer got it. “The detention was an ordeal in itself, but the threat to my family was a torment of another kind, just as heavy, if not worse,” he said.
After four days, the interrogations stop and Khaled understands that his case is being closed. However, he was not released. He spent about a month in another section of Sde Teiman. Eventually he was transferred to Al-Naqab Prison (Negev), where inmates slept in tents. “The soldiers were storming our tents and shooting rubber bullets at our legs and knees,” he said. “Those who were injured were left to bleed. » He said some of their wounds were infested with maggots.
Khaled was informed of the ceasefire agreement by some guards. On October 10, Al-Naqab guards ordered him and several others to line up. Khaled assumed he was being transferred to another prison, until he was taken to a place called Ward A. “That’s the ward reserved for people scheduled for release,” Khaled explained. “We all started to have hope.” Two hours later, they were handcuffed and fingerprinted, and their hope grew stronger.
Then the guards came and took away their blankets and mattresses. “We spent the next three nights sleeping on the cold floor,” Khaled said. They were given less food than before. “The fear returned,” he told me. “Yet we thought maybe they were attacking us because we were freed.” He said an intelligence officer finally waved him out, telling him: “If you do anything wrong, there will be no warning. We will send you a missile. Understood?”
After Khaled was finally released, he walked eight kilometers on foot through devastated neighborhoods from southern Gaza to a small town near Deir al-Balah. He was exhausted, but the closer he got to his wife and children, the more excited he felt. Eventually he reached a group of tents where his extended family lived. His young daughter was the first to spot him and he lifted her into the air with joy. Then his other loved ones rushed over, enveloping him in hugs.
He entered his immediate family’s tent, where his wife kissed him. He was afraid to ask where his three-year-old son was.
It turned out that the boy was only sleeping, lying on a thin blanket on the floor. Khaled knelt down, called his son’s name and leaned in to kiss him. His son stirred, half asleep, and blinked at Khaled’s unfamiliar face. In the moments before he fell asleep again, he didn’t seem to recognize his father.
When The New Yorker Asked the Israeli military, or IDF, about the conditions described by Khaled, a spokesperson called them “baseless allegations.” The Israeli Prison Service, which operates Ofer and Al-Naqab prisons, told The Washington Job that he maintains suitable living conditions. But experiences similar to those faced by Khaled – including prolonged kneeling, beatings, attacks by military dogs and lack of medical care – have been reported by human rights groups, the United Nations and news agencies. In June 2024, the Times reported that Gazans said they were strip-searched, blindfolded and handcuffed, then taken to Sde Teiman, where they were held in a deafening “disco room” and subjected to physical violence. “Any abuse of detainees, whether during their detention or during their interrogations, violates the law and IDF guidelines and as such is strictly prohibited,” the IDF said in a statement to the military. Times. Asked about airstrikes that killed civilians, IDF responded The New Yorker“Throughout the war, the IDF operated in accordance with international law to protect the security of the State of Israel and its citizens from Hamas attacks targeting civilians, by striking military targets. »
Last week on Facebook, a friend from my hometown of Beit Lahia posted a video of our old neighborhood. It broke me. Not a single house remained standing. The dental clinic on our street, a local clothing store, a flour mill where my father bought grain for our birds and rabbits, and even a palm tree that we used as a landmark had all been razed.
