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Torture testimonies that Netanyahu and US leaders do not want people to know

January 14, 2025 at 8:15 pm

Palestinian prisoners were brought to Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah in south of Gaza as a result of the torture inflicted upon them during detention by Israeli forces in inhumane conditions [Firas Al-Shaer]

He is living in a tent with his children, but his relationship with them is completely different than 15 months ago, when he was energetic and funny. “His children deal with him as if he was a stranger,” his wife, Salma, says.

Hassan,39, from the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanoun, was among tens of men ordered to leave their homes by the Israeli Occupation forces, who invaded the city at the beginning of the ongoing genocide. The Israeli soldiers conducted field interrogations with them, but the situation with Hassan was a bit different.

An Israeli soldier brutally beat an old man as he was interrogating him. Hassan got angry and screamed at the soldier, asking him to stop beating the old man and to release him. The soldier ignored Hassan, but five other soldiers approached him and started beating him with their hands, legs and rifle butts. They continued beating him until he fell on the ground and became motionless.

Then, two of the Israeli soldiers hanged him on the tank’s cannon, and started to move around the streets of Beit Hanoun and then he disappeared. People thought he was killed and, when they did not find his body, they expected it was buried or eaten by street animals like many other martyrs.

However, the critically wounded Hassan was taken to the notorious Sde Teiman Prison, where he was subjected to severe and unbelievable torture.

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According to his wife, at first, he was not treated for his critical wounds in his hands, chest and abdomen. Most of them were external but deep bruises and a broken hand. Then, the Israeli soldiers pressed on his wounds whenever they wanted to torture him.

One soldier used a small stick the size of a drinking straw and put it inside the wounds, inflicting severe pain on him and making him scream very loudly.

Hassan was interrogated as a Hamas member one time and as an Islamic Jihad member another time. In the beginning, he denied any relationship with any political party, but he continued to be beaten. Then, he changed his mind and decided to claim that he was a member of Hamas.

“The problem is that they ask questions during the interrogation and they beat you whatever your answer was,” Hassan said. This was the only sentence I could get from him. I collected all other information from his neighbours in the displacement camp and from his wife.

Hassan has been suffering from post-trauma symptoms since he was released in July to the south. He does not speak fluently and likes to spend time alone inside his family’s tent. At the same time, he has become aggressive and gets angry with anyone for no reason. He has told everything about what happened to him inside prison to his wife and his neighbour, Mohammad.

Salma told me that her husband was beaten harshly by the Israeli interrogators. Then, they put him in a small cell and let him hear voices of a woman and children, telling him that they were his wife and children in the next cell. Then, the voices stopped and he heard a sound of several bullets and was told that his wife and children had been executed.

While his family outside prison thought he was dead, he also thought his family members were killed. When he was released, he was shocked to find himself in the south of Gaza Strip and was also surprised with the scale of destruction everywhere.

When his parents, wife and children saw him, they became happy and celebrated his return. However, their happiness was turned into sadness when they recognised he was psychologically sick.

A psychiatrist, who saw him and examined his case, said he might recover and return to his normal condition but, he said, this would take a long time and “he needs special treatment and intensive, close follow-up”.

His wife expected that he might get sick when he saw her and his children suddenly in front of his eyes after spending a long time in prison knowing that they were killed.

This story is only one out of thousands of similar ones, and there may be harsher stories that Netanyahu, Israeli leaders, American and many Western leaders are blocking from reaching people.

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