Released Palestinian detainee relates torture, abuse in Israeli prison
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Since October, "Israel" has detained over 9,400 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and abducted thousands from Gaza and hundreds from the 1948-occupied territories.
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Muazzaz Khalil Abayat, a 37-year-old Palestinian from Beit Lahm, lies in a hospital bed following his release days earlier after being detained by Israeli forces, in Beit Jala, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on July 11, 2024. (AFP)
After he was imprisoned for 9 months, 37-year-old Muazzaz Abayat is a shell of his former self, expressing that he "came back from the dead."
He was detained without explanation on October 26, just over two weeks after the war on Gaza began, and was imprisoned in the al-Naqab desert prison, held without charge or trial.
"They arrested me at home, not surrounded by fighters, but by my children and pregnant wife," he told AFP.
The number of Palestinians who have died under torture in Israeli detention since October 7 is the highest since 1967, as per a report by the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
“Detainees are subjected to torture and various forms of abuse, including sexual assault and rape,” the report said.
When Abayat was liberated on Tuesday, a video went viral on social media, showing him hobbling and relying on a guy to move, while his right hand seemed paralyzed.
"No human being on the face of the earth can imagine how life has been," he added, referring to the jail where he was imprisoned as "the 'Guantanamo of the Negev.'"
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Read more: 'Israel' kills Palestinian detainees from Gaza after their release
"We were unjustly detained, killed and severely beaten with iron clubs and subjected to all kinds of torture," explained Abayat.
Abayat showed his wounded, skinny legs and detailed beatings with clubs and chains, describing how his body still hurts and detailing how Israeli occupation forces (IOF) gave us "10 to 12 beans and pieces of cabbage, and we had to survive on that from 7 a.m. to dinner time," explaining his drastic weight drop.
According to AFP, a before and after online photo depicts a sharp contrast between Abayat's former strong self and his current condition.
"This is enough to tell what happened to me," he said about the images.
According to his father, Khalil Abayat, his son "was a man who weighed about 100, 110 kilos (220 to 242 pounds) and was muscular," adding that he "was not the same Muazzaz" before his arrest.
Muazzaz weighed just 54 kg when he stood on the hospital scales on Wednesday.
Referring to "Israel's" occupation of the West Bank, Muazzaz stated that he has "left a small prison for the big prison."
9580+ Palestinians suffer worst conditions in Israeli prisons: PPS
The General Director of the International Relations Association in the Palestinian Prisoners Society, Raed Amer, discussed the crimes and murders the Israeli occupation commits against Palestinian detainees, the latest being the execution of five freed prisoners in the Netzarim Axis, in an exclusive interview for Al Mayadeen.
Amer affirmed that the detained Palestinians were "living through the worst phase in the prisoner movement's history while being subjected to forced starvation and torture daily."
"Israel" has detained at least 9,580 Palestinians, not counting those abducted and arrested from the Gaza Strip, according to Amer, who added that 55 Palestinians were arrested from the West Bank on Sunday night.
In late June, a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed that the Israeli occupation's Prison Service has been concealing the actual quantities of food provided to Palestinian detainees held in Israeli occupation prisons since the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
The revelation came to the forefront following a petition by the "Association for Civil Rights in Israel" (ACRI), which has brought this critical issue before the High Court of Justice, raising serious questions about the conditions under which these Palestinian detainees are being held.
According to the Israeli occupation's Police Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the reduction in food supplies was implemented as a deterrent measure. However, this stance was not included in the official response to the court.
#BaderDahlan was released from Israeli prisons today after spending a month in custody.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) June 20, 2024
Psychological and physical torture is apparent in Bader, who only spent a single month in Israeli prisons.
The systemic torture of #Palestinian prisons is deliberate and intended to break… pic.twitter.com/6m34JPclFK
