Tales From Behind the Walls: Voices of Released Prisoners Expose the Occupation’s Crimes

“Tales from Behind the Walls”… Voices of Freed Prisoners Expose Occupation Crimes

As dozens of Palestinian prisoners draw their first breaths of freedom after years of harsh detention, a stream of testimonies is revealing bloody chapters of abuse inside Israeli custody. These accounts do more than describe torture and mistreatment; they expose a systematic regime of daily humiliation and blatant violations of international law and humanitarian norms. The issue of the prisoners has never been just numbers in reports; it is a living embodiment of a resilient people who see dignity in their restraint and resistance in their endurance. The prisoners are guardians of national meaning behind bars, turning cells into schools of patience and their bodies into fields of struggle not subdued by chains. Between the jailer’s oppression and the prisoner’s dignity, this issue remains an open testament to the occupation, the absence of justice, and the hope that a global conscience will awaken from its slumber.

“The Tomb of the Living”…

Jamal Daghah, one of the freed prisoners from the village of Mazar al-Nubani north of Ramallah, described his brutal experience in Israeli jails as “the tomb 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 our will to live, but we clung to patience and hope, and we came out 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 abuse” practiced by the Israeli Prison Service against detainees since the start of the assault on Gaza.

At the end of his remarks, Daghah said movingly: “We left prison with battered bodies, but our spirits are free. The occupation may detain our bodies, but it cannot detain our will.”

The words of the freed prisoner sum up the pain of hundreds who have recently left the cells, carrying wounds that do not heal and a determination that does not break.

Harrowing testimonies… Beatings, electric shocks and humiliation a daily reality behind bars

Freed prisoner Thaer Abu Sara, 17, from Nablus, revealed shocking details in an interview about what he endured during his detention, saying: “I was subjected to brutal beatings and electric shocks. They left us for long hours without food or medicine, and they even mocked us when we asked for water or painkillers.”

He added: “I would hear the screams of prisoners in adjacent cells, and whenever someone shouted, I knew my turn would inevitably come.”

In another painful account, university student Shatha Jarrar, 24, from Jenin, spoke of her harsh experience inside Hasharon prison, pointing to ongoing violations 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 would hear the female prisoners screaming 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 experienced in prison defied description: “The beatings were random, and the insults never stopped. What we endured would be enough to break half a nation, but we responded with patience and faith that we would one day get out.”

He said the prison administration deliberately isolated him and prevented visits and outside contact “so there would be no witnesses to the crimes.”

These testimonies join hundreds of accounts documented by human rights organizations, confirming that detainees, including children and women, have been subjected to severe violations amid a lack of international accountability.

Freedom lists… and testimonies for investigation

In recent days, the Prisoners’ Media Office published official lists including the names of hundreds of freed prisoners in the most recent exchange deal, which included detainees of various ages and regions, among them: Nasri Aayed Hussein Asi, Mohammad Jamal Mohammad Aql, Ahmad Adel Jaber Saada, and others who carried long sentences.

The lists confirmed that the releases were not limited to recently detained individuals but also included prisoners who spent many years behind bars, some detained for more than ten years, reflecting the breadth and scope of the deal.

Alongside these developments, rights demands have escalated following successive painful testimonies from freed prisoners about 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 but conclusive evidence of a systematic policy aimed at breaking the will of Palestinian detainees.”

He indicated that the commission is continuing to collect documents and testimonies in preparation to submit them to the International Criminal Court within a war crimes file.

International rights calls

International human 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, particularly in light of reports of detainee deaths under torture and the deteriorating health of dozens of others.

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 brutal forms of torture and abuse are practiced in an attempt to break the spirit and silence voices. Nevertheless, those who emerged insist they are not statistics in data, but witnesses to the truth and messengers of dignity who 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 an entire nation’s dignity. Those who resisted behind bars will not be satisfied with doors being opened; their sacrifices must be recounted and the occupying state held accountable for its crimes. Their steadfastness, despite chains and wounds, awakens in generations an undying belief that freedom must be seized, not granted. True loyalty to them begins here: by turning their pain into a global, unforgettable cause until the cells are defeated and freedom is written.