UPDATE - Israeli army releases 33 Palestinian detainees from Gaza

UPDATES WITH HAMAS' AND MEDIA OFFICE'S STATEMENTS

By Hosni Nadim

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - The Israeli army released 33 Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, according to medical sources.

“The freed detainees were admitted to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital with thin bodies and signs of torture,” the sources said.

According to an Anadolu reporter, the detainees were set free east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

Later in the day, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas issued "horrific testimonies of severe abuses" faced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails following the release of several Palestinian detainees from Gaza by Israeli authorities on Thursday.

Hamas said in a statement, "The latest accounts come from several Palestinians from Gaza who were released on Thursday from the Sde Teiman detention center.

"This detention center is overcrowded with thousands of Palestinian detainees, forcibly taken by the (Israeli) occupation from the Gaza Strip."

At least 36 Palestinian prisoners detained by Israeli forces since Oct. 7 have died as a result of torture and harsh conditions in Israeli prisons, the Gaza Media Office said on Thursday.

The Israeli army is believed to have detained thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, including women, children and medics, amid its deadly offensive on the enclave.

Dozens of detainees freed by the Israeli army in recent weeks have described torture and mistreatment during interrogation while in custody.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.

Nearly 37,400 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 85,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar and Mohammad Sio