Amid Ceasefire Push, Palestinians Released from Israeli Jails Bear Mental, Physical Scars

Once muscular and strong, Palestinian bodybuilder Moazaz Obaiyat’s nine-month spell in Israeli custody left him unable to walk unaided upon his release in July. Then, in an October pre-dawn raid on his home, soldiers detained him again.

Before being re-arrested, the 37-year-old father of five was diagnosed with severe PTSD by Bethlehem Psychiatric Hospital, related to his time at Israel's remote Ktz'iot prison, according to medical notes seen by Reuters from the hospital, a public clinic in the occupied West Bank.

The notes said Obaiyat was subjected to "physical and psychological violence and torture" in prison and described symptoms including severe anxiety, withdrawal from his family and avoidance of discussion of traumatic events and current affairs. Alleged abuses and psychological harm to Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and camps are in renewed focus amid stepped-up efforts in December by international mediators to secure a ceasefire that could see the release of thousands of inmates detained during the Gaza war and before, in return for Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.

In the event of the release of detainees in any future deal, many “will require long-term medical care to recover from the physical and psychological abuse they have endured,” said Qadoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, a government body in the West Bank. Fares said he was aware of Obaiyat’s case.

For this story, Reuters spoke to four Palestinian men detained by Israel since the war’s outbreak after the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. All were held for months, accused of affiliating with an illegal organization, and released without being formally charged or convicted of any crime.

All described lasting psychological scars they attributed to abuses including beatings, sleep and food deprivation and prolonged restraint in stress positions during their time inside. Reuters could not independently verify the conditions in which they were held.

Their accounts are consistent with multiple investigations by human rights groups that reported grave abuses of Palestinians in Israeli detention. An investigation published by the United Nations human rights office in August described substantiated reports of widespread "torture, sexual assault and rape, amid atrocious inhumane conditions" in prisons since the war began. The UN office has also said Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The White House has called the reports of torture, rape and abuse in Israel's prisons “deeply concerning.”

In response to Reuters questions, the Israeli military said it was investigating several cases of alleged abuse of Gazan detainees by military personnel but “categorically” rejected allegations of systematic abuse within its detention facilities. The military declined to comment on individual cases. The Israel Prison Service (IPS), which falls under hard-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the country's internal security service said they were not in a position to comment on individual cases.

“Terrorists in Israeli prisons are granted supervised living conditions and accommodations appropriate for criminals,” Ben Gvir’s office said in response to Reuters questions, adding that the facilities operate in accordance with the law. "The 'summer camp' is over," Ben Gvir's office said.

Tal Steiner, executive director of the Israeli rights group Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), said the symptoms the men recounted were common and can echo through victims’ lifetimes, often shattering their families.

"Torture in Israeli prisons has exploded since October 7. It will have and already has had a devastating effect on Palestinian society," said Steiner.

Speaking from his hospital bed in July, a severely emaciated Obaiyat called the treatment of himself and fellow prisoners "disgusting," showing scars on his wasted legs and describing isolation, hunger, handcuffs and abuse with metal rods, without giving details.

Photos of Obaiyat taken before his incarceration show a powerfully-built man.

On Dec. 19, Israel’s High Court ordered the state to answer a petition brought by rights groups about the lack of adequate food for Palestinian prisoners. Israel has also reported mistreatment of some of the 251 of its citizens taken captive to Gaza after the Hamas attacks. A report by the Israeli Health Ministry, published on Saturday said hostages were subjected to torture, including sexual and psychological abuse. Hamas has repeatedly denied abuse of the hostages.

WITHOUT CHARGE

Obaiyat is currently being held in a small detention center in Etzion, south of Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group.

He is being held for six months under "administrative detention", a form of incarceration without charge or trial, and the official reason for his arrest is unknown, the group said. Israel’s military, internal security service and prison service did not respond to questions about his specific case.

PCATI said at least 56 Palestinians had died in custody during the war, compared to just one or two annually in the years preceding the conflict. Israel’s military said it launches criminal investigations of all deaths of Palestinians in its custody.

Palestinian prisoner numbers have at least doubled in Israel and the West Bank to more than 10,000 during the war, PCATI estimates, based on court documents and data obtained through freedom of information requests.

Through the course of the war, around 6,000 Gazans have been incarcerated, the Israeli military said in response to a query from Reuters.

Unlike Palestinians from the West Bank who are held under military law, Palestinians from Gaza are held in Israel under its Unlawful Combatants Law.

The law has been used to hold people incommunicado, deny them their rights as prisoners of war or as prisoners under military occupation, and incarcerate them for extended periods without charge or trial, according to Professor Neve Gordon, an Israeli scholar who specialises in human rights and international law at London's Queen Mary University.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club likened the detentions to forced disappearance. Israel's prison service declined to comment on prisoner numbers and deaths.

SDE TEIMAN CAMP

Fadi Ayman Mohammad Radi, 21, a former engineering student from Khan Younis, Gaza, was one of a couple dozen Palestinians released at the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza on Aug. 20.

Radi described struggling to stretch out his limbs after being cuffed and chained for four months at Israel's Sde Teiman military detention camp, officially a temporary prisoner sorting facility.

"They didn't interrogate us, they destroyed us," said Radi.

Located in the Negev desert, Sde Teiman has been the site of grave abuses including rape, according to allegations by whistleblowers among the camp’s guards.

Israel is currently investigating what the UN called "a particularly gruesome case" of alleged sexual abuse at Sde Teiman in which five soldiers are accused of anally penetrating a detainee with a rod that punctured his internal organs.

Radi said he was beaten repeatedly and arbitrarily, permanently restrained and blindfolded, hung up in stress positions and forced to sit on the floor almost constantly without moving.

At one point, he said he was deprived of sleep for five consecutive days in a space he said Israeli soldiers called the ‘disco room,' subjected to loud music. He did not describe sexual violence.

Radi said he found it difficult to sleep and that even talking about his ordeal made him relive it.

"Every time I say the words, I visualise the torture,” said Radi, who was arrested by Israeli soldiers in Gaza on March 4.

Reuters could not independently verify his story. The Israeli military said it was unable to comment, saying it could not find Radi's files because Reuters was unable to provide his ID number.

Despite a government decision to phase out Sde Teiman, the camp is still operational, PCATI said.

OFER AND KTZ’IOT

Widespread abuses have also been reported at more established facilities, such as the Ktz’iot prison, also in the Negev, and Ofer military camp, south of Ramallah in the West Bank.

After collating evidence and testimony from 55 former Palestinian prisoners, Israeli rights group B'Tselem earlier this year released a report accusing Israel of deliberately turning the prison system into a 'network of torture camps'.

Using emergency legislation introduced after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, Ben Gvir, the hardline minister, ordered conditions be downgraded for 'security prisoners', a category almost entirely comprising Palestinians.

Human rights scholar Gordon likened what he said was the use of torture in Israel's prisons to terrorism.

"Terrorism usually is an act that's limited in the number of people directly impacted, but the psychosocial effect is dramatic. It’s the same with torture," said Gordon, who co-edited a book on abuses in the Israeli prison system.

In the Mazzeh 86 neighborhood, west of the Syrian capital Damascus, the names of many shops, grocery stores, and public squares still serve as a reminder of the era of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his late father, Hafez al-Assad.

This is evident in landmarks like the “Al-Hafez Restaurant,” one of the prominent features of this area. Squares such as “Al-Areen,” “Officers,” and “Bride of the Mountain” evoke memories of the buildings surrounding them, which once housed influential officials and high-ranking officers in intelligence and security agencies. These individuals instilled fear in Syrians for five decades until their historic escape on the night of the regime’s collapse last month.

In this neighborhood, the effects of Israeli bombing are clearly visible, as it was targeted multiple times. Meanwhile, its narrow streets and alleys were strewn with military uniforms abandoned by leaders who fled before military operations arrived and liberated the area from their grip on December 8 of last year.

Here, stark contradictions come to light during a tour by Asharq Al-Awsat in a district that, until recently, was largely loyal to the former president. Muaz, a 42-year-old resident of the area, recounts how most officers and security personnel shed their military uniforms and discarded them in the streets on the night of Assad’s escape.

He said: “Many of them brought down their weapons and military ranks in the streets and fled to their hometowns along the Syrian coast.”

Administratively part of Damascus, Mazzeh 86 consists of concrete blocks randomly built between the Mazzeh Western Villas area, the Mazzeh Highway, and the well-known Sheikh Saad commercial district. Its ownership originally belonged to the residents of the Mazzeh area in Damascus. The region was once agricultural land and rocky mountain terrain. The peaks extending toward Mount Qasioun were previously seized by the Ministry of Defense, which instructed security and army personnel to build homes there without requiring property ownership documents.

Suleiman, a 30-year-old shop owner, who sells white meat and chicken, hails from the city of Jableh in the coastal province of Latakia. His father moved to this neighborhood in the 1970s to work as an army assistant.

Suleiman says he hears the sound of gunfire every evening, while General Security patrols roam the streets “searching for remnants of the former regime and wanted individuals who refuse to surrender their weapons. We fear reprisals and just want to live in peace.”

He mentioned that prices before December 8 were exorbitant and beyond the purchasing power of Syrians, with the price of a kilogram of chicken exceeding 60,000 Syrian pounds and a carton of eggs reaching 75,000.

“A single egg was sold for 2,500 pounds, which is far beyond the purchasing power of any employee in the public or private sector,” due to low salaries and the deteriorating living conditions across the country,” Suleiman added.

On the sides of the roads, pictures of the fugitive president and his father, Hafez al-Assad, were torn down, while military vehicles were parked, awaiting instructions.

Maram, 46, who previously worked as a civilian employee in the Ministry of Defense, says she is waiting for the resolution of employment statuses for workers in army institutions. She stated: “So far, there are no instructions regarding our situation. The army forces and security personnel have been given the opportunity for settlement, but there is no talk about us.”

The neighborhood, in its current form, dates back to the 1980s when Rifaat al-Assad, the younger brother of former President Hafez al-Assad, was allowed to construct the “Defense Palace,” which was referred to as “Brigade 86.” Its location is the same area now known as Mazzeh Jabal 86.

The area is divided into two parts: Mazzeh Madrasa (School) and Mazzeh Khazan (Tank). The first takes its name from the first school built and opened in the area, while the second is named after the water tank that supplies the entire Mazzeh region.

Two sources from the Mazzeh Municipality and the Mukhtar’s office estimate the neighborhood’s current population at approximately 200,000, down from over 300,000 before Assad’s fall. Most residents originate from Syria’s coastal regions, followed by those from interior provinces like Homs and Hama. There was also a portion of Kurds who had moved from the Jazira region in northeastern Syria to live there, but most returned to their areas due to the security grip and after the “Crisis Cell” bombing that killed senior security officials in mid-2012.

Along the main street connecting Al-Huda Square to Al-Sahla Pharmacy, torn images of President Hafez al-Assad are visible for the first time in this area in five decades. On balconies and walls, traces of Bashar al-Assad’s posters remain, bearing witness to his 24-year era.

Amid Ceasefire Push, Palestinians Released from Israeli Jails Bear Mental, Physical Scars