Gaza Herald_ With slow steps and a pale face worn down by hunger, the released Palestinian nurse Tasneem al-Homs arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, after Israel freed her along with four other detainees transferred by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Tasneem, the daughter of detained physician Dr. Marwan al-Homs, leaned heavily on the arms of two family members, barely able to stand. Her face showed deep fatigue and the signs of prolonged starvation.
On 2 October, the 24-year-old was abducted while on her way to work in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to the Office for Prisoner Affairs.
In a brief interview inside the hospital, Tasneem spoke in a faint voice about the “extreme brutality” of her detention conditions.
“We were beaten, insulted, and cursed. They treated us savagely, spraying gas inside the cells and beating the female prisoners until their heads were fractured,” she said.
With pain, she added: “They banned us from wearing the hijab and jilbab, and would rip them off by force.”
When asked about her detained father, she replied with a voice trembling from grief: “I know nothing. I just demand his release.”
Dr. Marwan al-Homs, director of Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah and responsible for managing Gaza’s field hospitals, was abducted by an Israeli special unit on 21 July while on a medical mission. The Ministry of Health reported at the time that he was wounded in the leg during the arrest.
On 21 November, the Israeli army issued a statement acknowledging for the first time that it was holding al-Homs. It claimed he “took part in identifying the location where officer Hadar Goldin was killed” and alleged he “might know the burial site of Goldin inside a tunnel in Rafah.”
On 9 November, Israel received the remains of Goldin, who was captured in August 2014 in Gaza, and whose body had been held by Hamas since then.
On Wednesday, Israeli human rights organizations revealed a dangerous escalation in Israel’s use of torture and severe abuse against Palestinian detainees since the genocide began on 8 October 2023. The documented violations include pouring boiling water on prisoners, unleashing dogs on them, and acts of rape.
In a detailed report submitted in October 2025 to the UN Committee Against Torture, these organizations documented at least 94 deaths inside Israeli detention centers since the start of the war, in addition to dozens of serious and untreatable medical injuries.
More than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners remain in Israeli jails, among them children and women enduring torture, starvation, and medical neglect that has led to the deaths of many, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups.
Crimes against prisoners have escalated alongside Israel’s two-year genocide in Gaza, launched in October 2023, which has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians and wounded around 171,000, most of them women and children.
On 10 October 2025, a ceasefire agreement meant to end the war technically began, yet Israel continues to violate it daily, killing and injuring hundreds more Palestinians in Gaza, home to around 2.4 million people.
