Released Palestine prisoner Hanady Halawani: ‘They threatened me with murder, rape’

The released prisoner Hanady Halawani described her recent arrest in Israeli prison as the “cruellest” of all the arrests and detentions she has been subjected to.

Halawani, who was recently released early Thursday morning as part of the prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and the Hamas movement, said that the Israeli police intentionally insulted her and Islam during her arrest from her home in East Jerusalem.

She recounted that the Israeli police arrested her on 9 October from her home in occupied Jerusalem, two days after the outbreak of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.

In her lifetime, Halwani has been subjected to a series of arrests, punishments and expulsions from the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and her last release was part of the sixth batch of prisoners released in the exchange deal.

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Halawani described: “Every arrest is more difficult than the last, but the latest one was the hardest. It was an illegal arrest. Each time before then, the officer would provide a warrant and ring the bell, but this time was different. The door of the house was blown up without me wearing my hijab and without a search warrant. I was spat on, and my God was cursed and insulted.”

Halawani noted that the Israeli police “stepped on the Holy Quran” in her house when they broke into it to arrest her.

“They told me that there is no law today. I was beaten by the police, physically searched and threatened with rape. It was very degrading.”

The freed prisoner explained that the Israeli police made “death threats” to her and her family.

Speaking about the circumstances of her last arrest during the aggression on the Gaza Strip, she explained: “I was subjected to physical, verbal and psychological violence. It was a difficult time for me and female prisoners in general.”

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