Gaza Herald – The Israeli authorities released nine Palestinian detainees from Gaza on Monday evening, all of whom had been detained since October 7, 2023. The detainees were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah for medical treatment under the supervision of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
One of the released detainees, freed a day earlier alongside seven others, delivered a stark testimony on behalf of Palestinians still held in Israeli prisons. “All the detainees are suffering,” he said. “Many are wounded or sick, freezing in the winter cold, and deprived of proper food and medical care. What we endured is beyond description.”
He explained that detainees were repeatedly transferred between what he described as Israeli “torture camps,” including Sde Teiman, before being moved to Ofer and Al-Naqab (Negev) prisons. “No one is released without severe abuse,” he said. “We were shackled, coerced, and forced to sign papers under pressure. The conditions remain unbearable.”
The detainee urged immediate international action, stressing that those still imprisoned face daily humiliation and life-threatening conditions. “The world must act now to free those still trapped in captivity,” he said, warning that silence enables continued abuse.
The releases come amid the broader context of Israel’s genocide on Gaza, which since October 2023 has involved widespread killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, despite international appeals and binding orders from the International Court of Justice. The campaign has left more than 242,000 Palestinians killed or wounded, most of them women and children, with over 8,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and large parts of Gaza reduced to rubble.
