The Israeli army has freed a group of at least eight Palestinian prisoners in central Gaza, some showing signs of severe torture, Al Jazeera reports.
The group, which included two women, arrived at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the morning after being released from Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank.
As stated by Al Jazeera journalist Hind Khoudary, the released prisoners are completely exhausted. One of the women was reportedly unable to walk and was carried on a stretcher to the emergency department.
Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said those freed were not arrested at the same time. One of the prisoners, an aid truck driver, was arrested at the Kerem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing. One of the released women said that she was arrested when she went to occupied West Bank with her child for treatment.
“Everyone said they were tortured, everyone said they were threatened. All of them said that their medicines and clothes were taken from them. They were asked about Hamas members and Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip,” she reported.
One unidentified released prisoner described what he survived in a video statement.
“We were arrested by Israeli soldiers who forced us to the ground and beat us. We were tortured for 30 consecutive days, our hands and feet were tied,” said a bearded man in his 30s.
“They threw us pieces of stale bread as food, and they denied us medicine. They used electric shocks on us, and we were verbally and physically abused day and night,” he said.
Released Palestinians have previously accused Israeli forces of torture and ill-treatment after they were captured in Gaza.
