Over 100 Palestinians released in Gaza after detention by Israeli military

Israel released over 100 Palestinians back into Gaza on Monday following their detention from different sites in the Gaza Strip over recent weeks.

The detainees, who were mostly men but included women and children, were held in poor conditions, subjected to physical violence on a daily basis and questioned about ties to Hamas before ultimately being released, two of them told Mada Masr.

“A day there felt like a year. They were 50 days that felt like 50 years,” said the first former detainee.

A list detailing 122 detainees who were released on Monday into Rafah through the Karm Abu Salem border crossing between Egypt, Gaza and Israel was circulated among journalists.

They were arrested from various sites in Gaza City, Khan Younis, and in areas across the southern part of the strip. They were held by the Israeli military for periods ranging from 10 days to two months. 

Those among the released who were sick or injured were transferred on Monday morning to Mohammed Yousef al-Najar Hospital in Rafah, while the rest joined other displaced Palestinians in the area.

Two of those released, who were detained for over 50 days, described a harrowing period in detention to Mada Masr.

They said they were among dozens arrested from the Harun al-Rashid school, in the Amal neighborhood in Khan Younis, where over a thousand displaced Palestinians were taking shelter when the Israeli military besieged the site in February.

One of the former detainees released into Gaza described the moment they were detained. “They separated the women from the men, made the women leave, then went through the men one-by-one. They took about 70-80 people from the school.”

“They took us to a nearby apartment building there and started questioning us, ‘Are you with Hamas? Are you an elite fighter?’ Stuff like that. After that they moved us to a military prison.”

Both he and another of the former detainees described being beaten and assaulted daily during the period of their detention, including assault by what they called “the dog squad.”

They also described being held in inhumane conditions. “You eat blindfolded, you wash yourself blindfolded, you do everything while handcuffed and blindfolded, even going to the bathroom,” said the second former detainee. They were provided with thin mattresses and light covers for sleep in cold weather, and given little food and drink, they said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the detainees released on Monday include two of its ambulance crew members who were detained for 50 days after their arrest at a military checkpoint in Khan Younis, while they were evacuating patients from Amal Hospital. Six other crew members are still detained by the Occupation military, said the Red Crescent, noting that they have no information about their whereabouts.

Israel’s military has arrested hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza over the six-month duration of its aggression on the strip, citing alleged ties to Hamas. Many of those arrested have been executed during detention or subjected to torture.