Al_Qassam Website - At the end of each week since the end of the genocide war, we eagerly await the announcement of the names of the Palestinian prisoners scheduled for release on the following day. We follow the lists issued by the relevant Palestinian authorities and examine who will be released to the West Bank and Gaza, and who will be forcibly deported outside the homeland, with hearts filled with joy and enthusiasm on one hand, and tension and sorrow on the other.

The occupation attempts to harass the families of prisoners scheduled for release by suppressing gatherings of relatives in front of the Ofer Prison, where the prisoners are released. In addition, the occupation intelligence prevents any celebrations, and imposes closures and checkpoints at the entrances of cities and villages to restrict the movement of Palestinians; these restrictions did not prevent Palestinians—young men, elders, women, and children—from gathering to welcome the heroic freed prisoners.

Although the crimes that the Palestinian prisoners endured over two years, and their suffering from the severe beatings they received before their release, they insisted in every interview conducted with them at the moment of their release on expressing their pride in the crowds that came to welcome them; whenever a journalist asked a freed prisoner about the conditions inside the prisons to describe what they had been subjected to, the prisoner would not respond to the question and would repeatedly say that all this suffering disappears as soon as they see these crowds who came from everywhere to greet them.

The released prisoners reported that they were subjected to various forms of abuse in Israeli jails and multiple camps to which they were transferred. They were handcuffed for long hours, dragged violently on the ground while restrained, and subjected to insults and humiliation. They were also forced to watch videos showing the destruction that befell the Gaza Strip during the genocidal war. They endured severe beatings, which resulted in rib fractures for several of them. Additionally, some of them were released suffering from Scabies, which ravaged their bodies, and they were not provided with the necessary treatment.

All the practices of the Israeli occupation, especially those carried out against Palestinian female prisoners and detainees before their release; confirm that the occupation seeks to impose control and dominance over the Palestinian people. Additionally, it carries out these actions as a retaliatory measure against the prisoners. On one hand, all prisoners received threats before their release, including threats of liquidation or re-arrest, as well as threats of banning any reception ceremonies, media interviews, or appearances. On the other hand, their families were threatened with being prevented from receiving their sons. The occupation forces raided several homes and halls to prevent the reception of the prisoners and arrested several others. All of this was summed up in a phrase by several occupation soldiers: "You are forbidden to rejoice."

Regardless of the shocking scenes we witnessed after the release of the Palestinian female prisoners and detainees, and the visible effects of torture and ill-treatment they endured, their willpower and morale reached the sky. Even if the exhausted body could not stand, the spirit remains steadfast and unyielding. Years of captivity did not break their determination, and not all the suffering shattered their resilience. They are witnesses to the arrogance of a criminal occupation, and their stories will remain a testament to its crimes and to the greatness of their will in facing them.

We should not be content with the joy of freeing the Palestinian prisoners and detainees, nor with the end of their immediate suffering inside the prisons. Rather, the time has come, more than ever, to hold the occupying regime legally accountable for its crimes against them, to hold it accountable for the torture they endured throughout their years of detention, for extracting confessions from them under torture and coercion, and for issuing arbitrary sentences against them. We must now demand compensation for the freed prisoners for all these crimes committed against them by the Israeli occupation, and for the many long years they spent unjustly in the occupation’s prisons, away from their loved ones. We will not be satisfied with their liberation alone; we will also work to legally hold the perpetrators of crimes against them accountable.