By Mahmut Geldi and Muhammed Emin Canik
ISTANBUL (AA) - Jamal al-Isawa, a Palestinian detained for 60 days in the Gaza Strip where the Israeli army has continued its attacks for nearly seven months, said he was subjected to various forms of torture during his detention.
“Don't ask me about the torture they inflicted on us there. Let no one say that there is any humanity in the state of Israel, there is no humanity in them,” Jamal al-Isawa told Anadolu.
Isawa said soldiers detained him at the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. “They put me in a truck with some young people and took me to a remote area. Then they put us in a detention center,” he said. “They tortured us constantly. I don't have the strength to speak. The place was full of young people, they tore many of them away from their families.”
On the treatment by soldiers, Isawa said he was dragged on the ground and beaten.
Israel released 61 of the many Palestinians it detained during ground attacks it launched on Gaza on Oct. 27 last year.
- 'These 60 days are gone from my children's lives'
“When Ramadan came, we thought ‘there might be a little humanity in the state of Israel,’ but there is no humanity in them,” he stressed.
Pointing to health problems he suffered as a result of torture, he noted: “I cannot stand on one of my legs, and I had an open heart surgery."
"They ruined us, and I don't know what to do. I was being held there for 60 days, the most difficult days of my life. We were counting the hours and minutes of each day.”
Stating that soldiers kept him in an unknown place, Isawa added: “These 60 days were taken from the lives of my children, sacrificed from the lives of my daughters. I did not see my father for 60 days and I did not know who survived in my family.”
He said: “As soon as I leave the hospital, I will kiss the land I stepped on, they deprived me of it. Alhamdulillah (praise God), I saw my children and my family well, with whom I was reunited.”
The Israeli army has detained thousands of Palestinians, including women, children, and health workers, since it began its ground invasion. Although Israel has released some it detained, the fate of others is unknown.
Israel has launched a brutal offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group, Hamas, on Oct. 7, which killed less than 1,200 people.
More than 34,600 Palestinians have since been killed and over 77,900 injured amid a tight siege imposed by Israel, which left the entire population, especially residents in northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.
Nearly seven months into the Israeli onslaught, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
* Writing by Serdar Dincel from Istanbul