The female Palestinian inmates were made to kneel in a line on a cold evening last Sunday on the grounds of Israel\u2019s Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a victory for you. We have destroyed and killed in Gaza, in Yemen, in Syria, in Iran. We killed (your) leadership,\u201d one, Rula Hassanein, recalled hearing in a 90-second Israeli propaganda video they were forced to watch on a large screen ahead of their release. <\/p>\n
The women were part of a group of 90 Palestinian prisoners released in a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel. Around nine hours earlier, Hamas had freed three Israeli hostages in Gaza after 15 months of captivity. <\/p>\n
Hassanein remembers the video vividly. The prisoners, she said, were made to watch it on loop for hours as Palestinians gathered outside to receive them. <\/p>\n
Israeli authorities charged her with incitement on social media, she said. <\/p>\n
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), court documents accused Hassanein of incitement over posts in 2022 and 2023, including reposts on X and Facebook \u201cin which she commented on the Israel-Gaza war, that included her frustration over the suffering of Palestinians.\u201d <\/p>\n
In another post, Hassanein also \u201ccommented on events in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including the shooting of two Israelis in the northern town of Huwara in August 2023 and the killing of an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint in East Jerusalem in October 2022,\u201d the CPJ said in May. <\/p>\n
Hassanein described her time in prison as filled with abuse and humiliation. She said she was strip searched and verbally abused by Israeli guards, calling the treatment \u201ctorture.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThey would hold us by the head, even slip off large parts of our headscarves, pushing us down to our knees and dragging us while we are bound at our hands and feet with heavy metal irons,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cNonetheless, prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities,\u201d it added. <\/p>\n
Hamas is expected to release a total of 33 hostages from Gaza during the 42-day truce. Those released so far have not spoken publicly about their experience in captivity. <\/p>\n
As of this month, Israel holds at least 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, according to the Commission of Detainees\u2019 Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners\u2019 Society \u2013 though that number does not include an unknown number of Palestinians taken captive in Gaza. The figure of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel includes 3,376 people held under the controversial system of administrative detention, meaning they can remain in prison indefinitely with no public charges against them nor trial. It includes 95 children and 22 women. <\/p>\n
A July report by the United Nations stated that detention conditions for Palestinians in Israeli custody \u201cworsened dramatically\u201d after October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, prompting an Israeli offensive on Gaza that has killed more than 47,000 and injured over 100,000 people, according to the health ministry there. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Israeli authorities further restricted access to food, water, sanitation and electricity, medical treatment, media and information, family visits and consultation with legal representatives,\u201d the report said. \u201cAccording to the OHCHR monitoring, there have been regular, at times daily, raids of prison cells, removal of personal items, and limited access to personal hygiene items, including menstrual hygiene.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hassanein described dire conditions in the Israeli prison, where inmates were given little food and were regularly subjected to physical and verbal abuse. <\/p>\n
Access to menstrual pads was sometimes at the mercy of male prison guards, she said. <\/p>\n
She recalled a woman from Gaza who wasn\u2019t provided a menstrual pad. \u201cWe could see blood all over her clothes and she was mocked (by Israeli guards)\u2026 it was horrifying.\u201d <\/p>\n
Before her arrest, Hassanein had given birth to premature twins. One died hours after her caesarean section. The surviving child, Elia, appeared to have forgotten her mother while Hassanein was in prison. <\/p>\n
A video of the mother and child\u2019s reunion on Sunday went viral on social media. <\/p>\n
Hassanein said she would often dream of her daughter in prison, but was dismayed when Elia didn\u2019t recognize her initially. \u201cOf course, my daughter forgot what I looked like,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI saw her and I hugged her, but she was afraid,\u201d she added. \u201cI am trying, with my husband, to re-enter Elia\u2019s life in a gradual manner, so as not to subject her to an emotional shock.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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