Painful losses faced by Gaza’s freed prisoners

On October 13, Israel released 1,718 prisoners from Gaza who had been detained since October 7, 2023, as part of a prisoner exchange agreement included in the ceasefire announced between Israel and Hamas three days earlier, on October 10. Yet the joy and relief of being freed was marred for many prisoners, their release bringing new forms of suffering. Some had lost their hearing or sight while in prison, and others are suffering from physical ailments and injuries, as well as intense psychological harm. Others are still being deprived of returning to loved ones who were killed in Israeli airstrikes during their detainment, while many returned to find that their homes had been razed to the ground in their absence. Mada Masr met with a number of released Palestinian prisoners in their new places of refuge in Gaza City and the central Gaza Strip.

Released prisoner Haitham Salem (31) was detained in mid-November 2024 in Beit Lahia. On September 8, 2025, while he was still in an Israeli prison, Occupation forces bombed the tent where his displaced family was taking refuge, killing his wife, his son Baraa (8), and his daughters Iman (5) and Liyan (2). He only learned that they had been killed upon his release and return to Gaza.

Salem now lives with his parents in a tent in Deir al-Balah, unable to return to Beit Lahia as their family home there was destroyed and due to Israeli forces' continued presence in the area. During his interrogation by Israeli military intelligence, Salem was subjected to physical torture that caused him herniated spinal discs, and yet he was deprived of necessary medical treatment.

Released prisoner Mahmoud Abu Fuul (28) was detained by Occupation forces at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza while preparing for surgery on his leg, which had been amputated 12 years earlier. He was transferred between three different Israeli prisons, where he endured brutal torture that left him blind. For two hours, he was beaten severely in the head, causing seizures, severe headaches, and hemorrhaging in his now-blind eyes. Several bones in his chest were also broken. Today, Abu Fuul lives with his parents in a tent in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, after Occupation forces destroyed their home in Jabaliya camp in the north.

Faris Ibrahim (15) was detained with his father, Ibrahim Abu Jabal (44), while they were seeking food at one of the aid distribution points set up between May and October 2025 — a period marked by extreme, man-made starvation, during which those seeking aid were frequently targeted by gunfire. Faris and his father were taken to Sde Teiman military prison, located on a military base in the Naqab desert and considered one of the most treacherous Israeli detention sites. During his imprisonment, Faris was subjected to multiple forms of torture, including being whipped, beaten with rifle butts, and electrocuted. Marks of torture are still visible on his legs. Since their release, and after the destruction of their family home in Beit Lahia, Faris and his father have been living with his mother in a tent in Gaza City.

In Zuwaida, central Gaza, released prisoner Jibril al-Safadi (46) suffers from the effects of severe torture inflicted on his legs during his detention at Sde Teiman, where he had been held since March 2024. Safadi’s right leg was amputated in prison, and his left leg suffers complications from multiple injuries. During his detainment, the Israeli military targeted and killed his son Yehia (22), the only son among four daughters, while he was attempting to recover belongings from their destroyed home.

Journalist Shadi Abu Sido (28) was detained at the Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza on March 18, 2024. During his imprisonment, he was subjected to psychological torture, as an Israeli intelligence officer repeatedly and falsely informed him that his wife and children had been killed. He was also physically tortured, suffering hemorrhaging in one eye, and denied medical treatment. Abu Sido’s home was bombed while he was detained, and since his release, he has been working to repair it, as he and his family have nowhere else to seek refuge.

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