Forced amputations, torture, and medical experiments: the Palestinian hostages returning home

This article contains images and descriptions of torture

Palestinian hostages returned to their homes are showing signs of torture, starvation, and many other afflictions. Saleh Al-Hams, the nursing director at the Gaza European Hospital, said:

The prisoners are in a state of severe emaciation, with some unable to walk due to the intense beatings and torture they have endured.

Middle East Monitor has reported that 456 Palestinians have been released. According to officials from Hamas, of those people released 11 were serving lifetime sentences. Just as with the other releases, social media was flooded with footage of emotional reunions.

Middle East Eye reported that:

Despite the joy felt across the occupied West Bank and Gaza, many freed detainees showed signs of distress, abuse, starvation and medical negligence in Israeli-run prisons and detention centres.

Palestinian hostages: horrific

A number of clips depicted the effects of the mistreatment and torture at the hands of Israel. Journalist Motasem Dalloul shared footage of released prisoner, Nader Hussein looking gaunt and emaciated:

No words to describe this..

Palestinian prisoner Nader Hussein who was released from Israeli jails today! pic.twitter.com/CbIdykrHSL

— Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza) February 15, 2025

Writer Mosab Abu Toha shared images of a Palestinian prisoner who had been brutally tortured:

One Palestinian prisoner who was released yesterday evening. He was abducted from Gaza a year ago and was then subjected to torture, especially burning by chemicals. He lost sight in his left eye. pic.twitter.com/iRkzOgJON6

— Mosab Abu Toha (@MosabAbuToha) February 27, 2025

Quds News Network reported on Thabet Abu Khater who arrived missing a leg:

Thabet Abu Khater, 66, arrived at Gaza's European Hospital missing a leg and in critical condition after being released in the latest batch of the prisoner exchange between the Palestinian resistance and Israel.

His release, along with that of hundreds of other detainees, was… pic.twitter.com/lPkbANXNYd

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) February 27, 2025

Many hundreds of people who were returned were gaunt and emaciated. Many also had evidence of skin diseases. And, a huge number were missing limbs:

📌Palestinian prisoners and detainees are subjected to shocking atrocities in Israeli prisons, where systematic torture surpasses the brutality of the most infamous detention centers in history. pic.twitter.com/G5KcWfTOJL

— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) February 27, 2025

Hell

Al Jazeera spoke to a prisoner, Adel al-Sobeih, who had his leg forcibly amputated:

Adel al-Sobeih, a Palestinian prisoner released in phase one of the Gaza ceasefire, recalls having his leg forcibly amputated and enduring "torture, medical testing, and mistreatment" in an Israeli prison. pic.twitter.com/vsHXOIlZms

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 27, 2025

Adel explains:

They treat everyone the same, if they’re a small child, a woman, or a man under the label of a terrorist organisation. Anyone from Gaza is seen as a threat to the state of Israel.

Adel initially needed a surgery for his leg. However, when abducted by the Israeli military they forced him to sign consent forms before amputating his leg. He underwent 26 surgeries, and recalled how he and his prisoners were used for medical testing:

They used every possible method of torture – psychological, physical, and mental. Every form of torment was inflicted upon us. We were shackled and blindfolded for 100 days, forbidden to move. We had no food. meals were just 20 grams.

The Israelis would also torment Adel psychologically:

Every day they would tell me something new – “Today we killed your father, your mother. Today, we killed your siblings. Today, we wiped out your relatives.” No one in prison had any sense of feeling. Emotion simply ceased to exist. You couldn’t truly process anything anymore.

Yahya Shrida, another Palestinian prisoner, said:

We have been taken out of suffering. It was as if we have been dug out of our own graves. No prisoner has had the experience of having their own release delayed twice.

What we have been through is a situation that the mountains can’t carry. It is very hard to explain; it is very hard to talk about what we have been through.

One prisoner who was released said:

We were in hell, and we came out of hell.

Palestinian hostages have heartfelt reunions

Asmaa Shatat rushed to embrace her children:

The freed Palestinian prisoner, Asmaa Shatat from Gaza, embraces her children after being released from occupation jails. Shatat was kidnapped during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip in 2023. pic.twitter.com/ttBUmFzpFI

— Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) February 27, 2025

Her young children desperately cling to her as she kisses them. After the onslaught of Israeli bombing, it feels like a miracle that there are even any mothers and children both alive to be reunited.

Fadel Khaldi, another parent, wept as he finally embraced his children:

Freed Palestinian detainee Fadel Khaldi, who was abducted from Gaza during the Israeli genocide, embraces his children after being freed yesterday as part of a prisoner exchange deal. pic.twitter.com/IpptYAPVga

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) February 28, 2025

A teenager was overcome with emotion, as he clung to his father:

A freed Palestinian teenager clung to his father after being released as part of the seventh round of the prisoner exchange deal. He was abducted by the Israeli army in the early weeks of the invasion. pic.twitter.com/pehC13x3HU

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) February 27, 2025

One father, who had never met his son who was born during his intention, met his child for the first time:

After years of separation, Palestinian prisoner Louay Saabneh finally held his son for the first time. His son was still unborn when he was taken to an Israeli prison, making this reunion one of many emotional moments witnessed in the West Bank and Gaza on Thursday.
Saabneh was… pic.twitter.com/LGyCvAXdPx

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) February 28, 2025

Anguish

At the time of writing, it’s been around 48 hours since the latest round of Palestinian prisoners have been released. More accounts of torture will undoubtedly emerge. As people who have been through a living hell are left to face the pieces of their lives and homes that Israel continually keeps trying to destroy. And, as ever, mainstream Western media will continue to highlight the Israeli hostages and nobody else.

Some of the released prisoners were arrested under charges of terrorism. Even still, others will have been children throwing rocks at tanks. And, many were abducted from their neighbourhoods, and held without charge or trial. What are those people if not hostages? If not a living, and tortured, reminder that Israel is a depraved settler colonial state who is trying to bomb and torture its way into ethnic cleansing?

Featured image via the Canary