How released prisoner and journalist Imad al-Afrenji described prisoners’ conditions

Media editor Emad Al-Afrenji described the harsh reality faced by prisoners in the occupation’s detention centers as the most severe, especially for detainees who have spent many years there, particularly during the war on Gaza.

Al-Afrenji said in remarks about detention conditions: “A day in the prisons today equals a whole year compared to before.”

Al-Afrenji, speaking a day after his release in a swap deal, said the scale of torture and abuse, the strip-searches and neglect in medical care, is unimaginable; he said sick prisoners receive no treatment other than water and cannot withstand the weapon of hunger that has ravaged detainees.
In describing detention conditions he referred to abuse of prisoners by trained dogs, shootings, strip-searches, beatings, punches, the “shabeh” (a form of suspension torture) and kinds of torment “that would turn the young grey.”

Al-Afrenji addressed a message to journalists about their role in sharpening resolve and depicting the Palestinian people’s epic of heroism; they are to craft an honorable image and be the true eyes that expose the occupation’s crimes to forge glory and the future.

He added: “You, the journalists, can help keep the people on their land, and stories must be preserved and published so the world knows that our people’s march of patience has not stopped.”

He stressed that leaving detention imposes great responsibilities on them; what they endured requires volumes to record the information and events.

The occupation released journalist Emad Al-Afrenji on Monday after he spent more than a year and a half in detention. He was arrested while inside the Al-Shifa medical complex on March 17, 2024, along with a number of journalists and doctors.