Palestinian detainee relays how torture in Israeli prison made him blind

After eight months in Israeli custody, Mahmoud Abu Foul could not see his mother’s face.

Abu Foul, a 28-year-old man from northern Gaza, was detained in Israeli detention facilities after being taken into custody from Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in late December. He claims guards tortured and beat him so severely that he lost his sight.

As part of a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that has resulted in the release of nearly 2, 000 Palestinian detainees from Israeli detention centers, many of whom showed obvious signs of abuse, he was released this week.

Abu Foul, who had already lost a leg in a bombing in Israel in 2015, claimed that he was subjected to constant torture while imprisoned. Abu Foul endured numerous beatings and torture at Sde Teiman prison, which other detainees refer to as “the prison that breaks men.”

He was unconscious when guards struck him on the head with such force. He claimed that when he recovered consciousness, he realized that he had lost sight.

He said, “I kept asking for medical care, but all they gave me was one type of eye drops,” adding, “it didn’t work.” No one seemed to care, despite the fact that “my eyes were constantly tearing, with discharge and pain.”

He attempted a hunger strike to demand medical attention, but the prison authorities did not follow his demands.

Abu Foul anxiously waited for his family when he was finally released and transferred to Nasser Hospital. He feared the worst because he had been informed that northern Gaza was devastated. Then his mother arrived.

He said, “I tightly hugged her when I heard her voice.” Even though I couldn’t see her, hearing her was worth it.

Abu Foul is seeking medical assistance while currently residing in a tent close to ruins and is still receiving eye treatment.

His account is in line with growing body of evidence of systematic abuse in Israeli prisons. Many of the Palestinians who were released this week came out of hiding. During detention, a prisoner lost nearly half of his body fat.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights found that torture was practiced in all Israeli prisons, not just at notorious locations like Sde Teiman, based on testimony from 100 former detainees who were detained between October 2023 and 2024.

Without the assistance of judges, attorneys, or family members, all were imprisoned incommunicado.

At least 100 Palestinians’ bodies that were taken into custody have been returned by Israel. Some of the corpses had signs of abuse, according to medical sources who told Al Jazeera, and some had suggested executions.

According to Dr. Munir al-Bursh, director-general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, “They did not die naturally; they were executed while restrained.”

Since October 2023, according to the UN, at least 75 Palestinian prisoners have perished in Israeli prisons.

Last year, Israeli rights organization B’Tselem described the prison system as a “network of torture camps” where detainees are subject to sexual abuse, denied food and medical care, and are repeatedly abused.

According to the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), an Israeli rights organization documenting torture, Israeli authorities have indicted only two people for each of their hundreds of reported abuse cases since October 2023.

Physicians for Human Rights – Israel founder Dr. Ruchama Marton claims her decades-long campaign has failed to stop the practice in Israel. In reality, she told Haaretz, “Maybe people didn’t deny it any more, but it eventually became standard.”

The prison service’s administrator, far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has defended the harsh treatment of Palestinian prisoners and said that “the time has come for the terrorists to spend in camps and be patient with them.”

Marwan Barghouti, a well-known Palestinian political leader and detainee, has also been filmed making fun of Ben-Gvir.

According to witnesses who witnessed Barghouti being brutalized by guards last month, Barghouti’s son earlier this week expressed concern for his father’s safety in an Israeli prison.

Arab Barghouti claimed that because his father is a unified figure among Palestinians, Israel was targeting him in an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday.

The family informed media this week that they had received testimony from Palestinian detainees detained as part of the Gaza ceasefire agreement. Barghouti was allegedly beaten by guards in mid-September while transferring between two Israeli prisons.

In Israel’s prisons, approximately 9, 000 Palestinian prisoners are still imprisoned, many of whom have never gone through a proper legal process. Israel has refuted claims of systematic abuse, but it hasn’t provided proof to refute those claims.

Source: Aljazeera