A medical source said that nine Palestinian prisoners released by Israel today arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Government Hospital in the central Gaza Strip to receive medical care.
Over the past few months, Israel has released a number of Palestinian prisoners it had arrested in the Gaza Strip. They were in poor health, and some suffered injuries from the severe torture they endured in detention.
The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem previously stated in a series of reports that many prisoners were subjected to "repeated, arbitrary, severe violence, sexual assault, humiliation, deliberate starvation, sleep deprivation, and denial of medical treatment."
The prisoners include children, women, medical and civil defense personnel, and civilian men. They have been detained by the Israeli occupation forces since the start of its ground offensive in Gaza on October 27, 2023.
On April 17, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club reported that Israel had arrested thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip amidst extreme secrecy and enforced disappearance since October 7, 2023.
He added in a statement that the detainees are subjected to "harsh and terrifying detention conditions aimed at inflicting the greatest possible harm on them."
During the first phase of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement, which took effect on January 19, Israel released hundreds of prisoners it had arrested in Gaza in exchange for the release of Israeli detainees in the Strip.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has continued its widespread war of extermination against the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, including killing, destruction, starvation, and forced displacement, ignoring international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
This US-backed war left more than 172,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing.
