Two years in Israeli prison without charges. He came home and found his family dead

nAssem waited for two years to reunite with his wife and four children Gazaone Israeli survivor prison Where he was held without charge and without contact with the outside world.

The 30-year-old Palestinian was arrested by Israeli forces at a checkpoint in December 2023 GazaAnd was one of 1,700 Palestinians in the Strip – All detained without charge or trial , The ceasefire brokered by Donald Trump was issued in exchange for

But when he returned home, he found that almost his entire family had perished and his house had been razed to the ground.

He explains, “The image of my family never left my memory. When I became independent I could only think of being united with them. It is a mirage now.” Independent in desperation.

The only family member who survives is his four-year-old daughter: “My wife, my son, my two daughters, my mother-in-law – all killed, all dead. I am a prisoner of sorrow.”

Amidst wave of happiness after Trump’s death armistice agreementin palestinians Gaza Acknowledging the devastating consequences of two years of unprecedented bombing israelIt has killed more than 67,000 people and left vast areas in ruins, according to local officials.

Many freed prisoners, like Naseem, found that they had nothing left to return to. Dr. Bilal al-Masr had been detained without charge since December 2024, when his hospital, Kamal Adwan, was surrounded and attacked, his home also ransacked and he suffered nightmares of alleged abuse.

“I returned free to a shackled motherland, without a home, without a hospital, without a life,” he says. “We could hear the screams of the prisoners at night.”

The initial part of Trump’s deal was to release all 48 of the remaining living and dead hostages seized by Hamas. israel During their 7 October attack. The militant group is still handing over remains, The bodies of about 16 hostages are still in Gaza, and their families are in great distress.

In return, Israel released approximately 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and hundreds of bodies of dead Palestinians.

Of the Palestinians arrested in the Strip since October 2023, it is understood that all of them, like Nassem, were held under Israel’s highly controversial “unlawful combatant” law.

It allows Israel to detain people indefinitely without charge and has been criticized by rights groups for violating international law.

Returning detainees have described ill-treatment, torture, and even alleged that summary executions took place in the detention centers.

Forensic doctors from the Strip shared photos of more than 160 bodies brought back. At least one body appears crushed and has large grooves dug into the flesh, suspected to be tank or military bulldozer caterpillar tracks.

Dr. Ahmed Duhair, director of forensic medicine at Nasser Hospital, who is managing the identification process, says many of the bodies were naked except for underwear and there were some cases in which “wrists and ankles” were missing. [were] Tied up, there are obvious marks on their bodies, indicating that torture instruments were used.

In a statement, the Israeli military said all the bodies it returned to Gaza were “from the fighting within the Gaza Strip, not detainees.” [who were] Taken alive to Israel”.

It added that it “acts strictly in accordance with international law, in stark contrast to the murderous terrorist organization Hamas, which murdered civilians and desecrated bodies”.

e d f The first stated that it “completely rejects allegations of systemic mistreatment of detainees in its detention facilities”.

israeli prison The service said it was not aware of the claims described and “to the best of their knowledge, no such incident took place under IPS responsibility”.

It states: “All prisoners are held in accordance with legal procedures, and their rights, including access to medical care and adequate living conditions, are upheld by professionally trained staff.”

However, The Independent’s Self-investigation into the treatment of Palestinian prisoners In many of Israel’s prisons, which are partly run by the military and the IPS, evidence of abuse, torture, sexual violence and even deaths in custody has emerged over the past two years.

Majdi al-Darini, 55, a father of five from the Jabaliya camp and employee of the Palestinian Authority, a rival of Hamas, claims he suffered “severe beatings, assaults and ill-treatment” while in detention and that he also witnessed executions.

He was arrested two months ago at an aid distribution site in Gaza and held in Sde Teiman, a former military base in southern Israel that was converted into a detention center.

He said that the soldiers sometimes played deafening music and “left it on for hours, preventing us from sleeping”.

He claims that at one point, he was violently dragged outside along with four other people and told to stand in a line.

“I heard a second shot of a weapon, followed by heavy firing. I looked back and saw four people lying on the ground covered in blood. They had been deliberately shot at close range.”

Independent Asked the Israeli military for comment on this allegation – the army denied summary executions of detainees.

Dr. al-Masr, detained without charge since December 2024, was among seven doctors and dozens of nurses and paramedics who Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) says were freed in this month’s deal.

Palestinian monitor Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW) says 115 Palestinian medical professionals are being held without charge in Israeli prisons, including Hussam Abu Safia, who was the director of the hospital where Dr. Bilal worked. Israel is also holding the bodies of four doctors who died in custody, HWW said.

PHRI has issued several reports accusing Israel of deliberately targeting Gaza’s physicians, hospitals, and the healthcare system in general.

Dr. Bilal also described hunger, lack of clean water, food, and medicine inside SD Taiman: “They did not allow us to bathe or change our clothes, and even the sick did not receive medical treatment.”

Another released detainee, Saeed, 37, who was held in SD Teiman for almost two years, described similar treatment, including loud music and beatings.

“In winter we were half naked, suffering from severe cold, our hands and feet were tied, and treated like animals. One day, they poured hot water on our bodies as a form of torture.”

When he returned to Gaza, he learned that dozens of his family members had been killed – including his brother, uncles and cousins ​​on both sides.

“I felt as if I had left a prison And entered a bigger one. Today Gaza is no longer livable. The scale of destruction is beyond our capacity to bear.”

Now doctors in Gaza are beginning the long task of identifying the bodies of Palestinians taken by Israel.

For Naseem and hundreds of others, he is now beginning the long process of getting his life back in order.

“My heart is filled with immeasurable pain. Freedom from losing loved ones is not freedom but a return to a pain worse than captivity.”