Al-Khamisa News Network - Gaza
“Tales from Behind the Walls”… Voices of Freed Prisoners Expose Occupation Crimes
As dozens of Palestinian prisoners take their first breaths of freedom after years of harsh detention, testimonies continue to emerge revealing bloody chapters of abuse inside Israeli prisons. These accounts do not only recount details of torture and ill-treatment but expose a systematic regime of daily humiliation and flagrant violations of international law and humanitarian charters. The prisoners’ issue has never been mere numbers in reports; it is a living embodiment of a resilient people who see in their endurance a picture of dignity and in their steadfastness a banner of struggle. Prisoners are guardians of national meaning from behind bars, turning cells into schools of patience and their bodies into arenas of struggle that restraints cannot defeat. Between the jailer’s oppression and the prisoner’s dignity, this issue remains an open witness to the occupation, the absence of justice, and a waiting global conscience to awaken from its slumber.
“The Grave of the Living”…
Jamal Daghah, one of the freed prisoners from the village of Mazarat al-Nubani north of Ramallah, described his harsh experience in the occupation’s prisons as “the grave of the living,” saying: “What we went through is unbelievable. We were beaten daily and deprived of food; I lost about thirty kilograms, and my physical and mental state tells the whole story.”
Daghah added: “They wanted to extinguish in us the will to live, but we clung to patience and hope, and we emerged with spirits stronger than their walls.”
His testimony matches dozens of accounts documented by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, which reveal a policy of “starvation and ill-treatment” practiced by the Israeli Prison Service against prisoners since the start of the Gaza offensive.
At the end of his remarks, Daghah said emotionally: “We left prison with exhausted bodies, but our souls are free. The occupation may detain our bodies, but it cannot detain our will.”
The freed prisoner’s words sum up the pain of hundreds who recently left cells, carrying unhealed scars on their bodies and unbreakable determination in their hearts.
Harrowing testimonies… Beatings, electric shocks and daily humiliation behind bars
Freed prisoner Thaer Abu Sara (17) from Nablus revealed in an interview shocking details of his detention, saying: “I was subjected to severe beatings and electric shocks. They left us for long hours without food or medicine, and they mocked us when we asked for water or painkillers.”
He added: “I used to hear the screams of prisoners in the neighboring cells, and whenever someone screamed, I knew my turn would come inevitably.”
In another painful testimony, university student Shaza Jarrar (24) from Jenin described her harsh experience inside Hasharon prison, pointing to ongoing abuses against female detainees: “I was placed in a cell monitored by cameras even inside the bathroom; the aim was to humiliate us psychologically and break our dignity. I refused food for days to preserve my privacy and dignity.”
She added: “We heard the screams of female prisoners at night, and banging on the iron doors was our only way to communicate and comfort one another.”
Freed prisoner Faisal (who asked that his family name not be published for security reasons) said what he endured in prison defied description: “The beatings were random, and the insults never stopped. What we suffered would be enough to hurt half a nation, but we responded with patience and faith that one day we would get out.”
He indicated that prison management deliberately isolated him and prevented visits and contact with the outside world “so there would be no witnesses to the crimes.”
These testimonies add to hundreds of accounts documented by rights organizations, confirming that detainees, including children and women, have been subjected to grave violations amid an absence of international accountability.
Lists of the freed… and testimonies for investigation
Over recent days, the Prisoners’ Media Office published official lists containing the names of hundreds of freed individuals as part of the latest exchange deal, which included prisoners of various ages and regions, among them: Nasri Aayed Hussein Asi, Muhammad Jamal Muhammad Aql, Ahmad Adel Jaber Saada, and others with long sentences.
The lists confirmed that the release operation did not only include recently arrested detainees but also prisoners who spent many years behind bars, some detained for more than ten years, reflecting the breadth and scope of the deal.
Parallel to these developments, rights demands have risen following the succession of painful testimonies from freed prisoners about what they endured of torture, starvation and humiliation.
The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club issued consecutive statements calling for an urgent international investigation into what they described as “systematic torture crimes” inside the occupation’s prisons.
The commission’s spokesperson said: “These testimonies are not stories or isolated incidents; they are conclusive evidence of a systematic policy aimed at breaking the will of Palestinian detainees.”
He pointed out that the commission continues to collect documents and testimonies in preparation to submit them to the International Criminal Court as part of a war crimes file.
International rights calls
International rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have called for immediate access for United Nations missions and the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit detention facilities, especially amid reports of deaths of several prisoners under torture and the deteriorating health of dozens more.
The testimonies of freed prisoners reveal that the occupation’s prisons are an extension of an open war on the Palestinian person, where the most heinous forms of torture and ill-treatment are practiced in an attempt to break the spirit and silence the voice. Yet they came out to assert that they are not numbers in statistics but witnesses to the truth and messengers of dignity that will not bow.
The prisoners’ cause is not a detail in the battle for liberation; it is the heart of the conflict and the measure of a nation’s dignity. Those who resisted behind bars are not satisfied with doors simply being opened — their sacrifices must be recounted and the occupying state held accountable for its crimes. Their steadfastness, despite restraints and wounds, awakens in generations an undying belief that freedom is seized, not given. Honoring them begins here: by transforming their pain into a global, indelible cause until the cells are defeated and freedom is written.
