Palestinian detainees, some of whom were released from Israeli detention, have described the shock of returning to Gaza, which is indistinguishable from the place from which they were taken, with stories of brutal treatment.
Gaza is gone, 35-year-old Shadi Abu Sid shouted to the camera as he emerged from a bus in the southern city of Khan Younis on Monday. “It’s like a scene from Judgment Day,” he said of the destruction.
He was later reunited with his wife and children, but his captors falsely told him he had died.
Abu Sid is among 1,718 Palestinian detainees released in exchange for Israeli hostages, as well as 250 security prisoners convicted of serious crimes such as murder. The detainees, who have been held since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, have not been charged with any crime. All 20 surviving Israeli hostages held in Gaza were released under the exchange.
Abu Sid, a Lebanon-based TV cameraman who was arrested while filming at Al Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza in March 2024, told NBC News by phone that he was stripped naked, handcuffed and had his ribs broken when he was first arrested 19 months ago. He was reportedly kept handcuffed and blindfolded for several weeks in prison.
“You can’t eat, you can’t go to the bathroom, you can’t talk, you can’t lift your head,” he said. Those who did not comply were “hung on the wall and beaten,” he added.
Abu Sid said the soldiers bullied him for his job, and one of the interrogators punched him in the eye multiple times to prevent him from operating the camera. He said he now needs professional treatment, but he fears he won’t be able to get it in Gaza.
Maureen Kaki, a Palestinian-American aid worker with the medical non-governmental organization Guria, was at Nasser Hospital on Monday as released detainees arrived for medical examinations, most of them emaciated, limping and looking hunched over.
“Everyone had scabies,” she said in a video call Tuesday night. “Since the ceasefire was announced, more than one person shared the same story of being tortured, withheld from food, and forced to drink water from the toilet. Everyone we spoke to had the same story. It was truly terrifying.”
She said three people who had been incarcerated for months arrived at the hospital with fresh gunshot wounds, but the wounds appeared to have “occurred within the past three weeks.”
Israel also returned the bodies of 120 detainees. On Thursday, the Gaza Ministry of Health posted photos of bodies returned with signs of torture and various toes and fingers missing.
The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment on the allegations of torture and ill-treatment. In a separate incident in February, five Israeli reservists were charged with beating and stabbing a detainee, breaking a man’s ribs, puncturing his lung, and slitting his rectum.
Dozens of detainees released on Monday were medical workers. Among them was Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, director of Al Awda Hospital, who was detained during a raid in December 2023, but chose to remain with his patients, ignoring IDF warnings to leave.
Muhanna addressed the crowd that had gathered to welcome him back to the hospital after nearly two years in detention.
“They directly targeted health workers,” he said. “But we’re never going to leave the hospital.”
The Israeli military has previously defended attacks on hospitals in the Gaza Strip, repeatedly saying they are used as operational bases for Hamas.
At least 115 medical workers from Gaza are among the thousands of Palestinians still held in Israeli custody, according to the watchdog group Healthcare Workers Watch.
Among them was Dr. Hassam Abu Safiya, a prominent pediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, whose family said he had been granted release. On Thursday, an Israeli court extended Abu Safiyah’s detention for another six months.
