'Graveyards for the living’: Freed Palestinian exposes dehumanizing abuse in Israeli jails

A recently freed Palestinian prisoner has recounted harrowing experiences of torture, overcrowding and dehumanizing treatment during his seven-year imprisonment in Israeli jails. 

Mahmoud Samer Jabarin, a resident of Jenin Refugee Camp in the northern occupied West Bank, in remarks on Sunday, described Israeli jails as “graveyards for the living.” 

He was released as part of a prisoner exchange deal between the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and the Israeli regime on Saturday.  

His account highlights the brutal conditions faced by detainees in Israeli detention centers and prisons.

“I spent seven years in Israeli prisons,” Jabarin told Turkey's Anadolu news agency after his release. “The period during Israel’s genocide in Gaza was the hardest. We endured torture, beatings, and humiliation.”

“We were cut off from the world entirely. They (Israeli soldiers) took everything from us. We were all subjected to beatings and torture, and food was scarce. They showed no mercy, not to the elderly, children, or the sick.”

Jabari has revealed shocking details of abuse and humiliation prisoners suffered, often in the middle of the night.

“Israeli special forces would storm our cells at 2 a.m., assaulting us, spraying us with cold water, and firing tear gas without any reason,” he said. “We were beaten, cursed, and insulted at the whims of the soldiers.”

“Each room, barely 12 square meters, housed 12 prisoners with no mattresses,” said Jabarin.

“They would hurl abusive words at us, saying, ‘You shouldn’t be alive. You should be killed. You deserve to be crushed,’” he added.

200 Palestinian abductees released in exchange for 4 Israeli soldiers

Busses carrying the freed Palestinians, some serving life sentences, have been received by cheering crowds in Ramallah on Saturday.

Israel has released a list of more than 700 Palestinian prisoners, who are to be released under the deal. More than 230 prisoners are serving life sentences and will be permanently sent to exile upon their release.

Hamas said in a recent statement that Israel was forced to "open the doors of his cells to our heroic prisoners,” after more than 14 months of "unprecedented brutal aggression that targeted every inch of Gaza in its barbarity."

Elsewhere in his remarks, Jabarin expressed gratitude to everyone who contributed to their release. He also expressed concern that Israel’s genocidal acts may spread from Gaza to the West Bank, amid an ongoing large-scale military operation in the occupied city of Jenin. 

“I want to return to my home in the Jenin Refugee Camp today,” he said, adding: “But I’ve learned the Israeli army is conducting a military operation there. I pray for relief.”

UN blasts Israel’s use of ‘war fighting’ methods in West Bank's Jenin

The UN human rights office says it is "deeply concerned by the use of unlawful lethal force" by Israel in occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

The attack on Jenin, where the regime’s forces have carried out multiple raids and large-scale incursions over the past year, began only two days after the start of a long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian resistance groups in the besieged Gaza Strip. 

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