Deir el-Balah, Gaza – Faraj al-Samouni, 39, sits in a tent in a makeshift camp in Deir el-Balah, surrounded by his household who can hardly consider he’s alive after months of Israeli captivity.
“My brothers didn’t recognise me when I was released,” he says. He’s diminished, he misplaced 30kg (66 kilos) in captivity, 30 % of his physique weight.
It doesn’t matter to his mom Zahwa, 56, who sits beaming subsequent to him, welcoming guests, lots of them households of different prisoners in search of details about their detained kin.
Faraj spent greater than six months in captivity after he and his two brothers had been arrested whereas strolling down the so-called “safe corridor” on November 16 on their technique to the south of Gaza.
In December, Al Jazeera spoke to Zahwa and her sister-wife Zeenat simply after Faraj and his brothers Abdullah, 24, and Hamam, 16, had been taken.
Abdullah and Hamam, who’re Zeenat’s sons, are nonetheless held, with their destiny unknown.
Tortured, interrogated, starved
“It was a shock when I was arrested. I’m a farmer with no political activity,” Faraj says.
“I was walking through the safe corridor with my wife and children, carrying my daughter. Israeli soldiers called Abdullah over, Hamam was upset, and the soldiers called him over too,” Faraj remembers.
“I was upset and protesting that they had my brothers, so they noticed me. Abu blousa hamra [man in a red shirt], come here,” the soldier stated.
“I handed my daughter to my wife and approached. They made us strip completely and handcuffed us.”
Faraj and roughly 75 different males remained handcuffed and blindfolded as troopers beat them earlier than transferring them someplace he couldn’t establish.
“They were barracks, the severe torture began there,” he says.
“The beatings focused on sensitive body parts. Female soldiers stomped on our heads with their metal-toed boots.”
Then got here interrogations the place Faraj was pressured for details about Hamas, its members, rocket launch websites, and particulars about October 7.
“When I denied any connection to Hamas or any military or political activity, the interrogator would go crazy, screaming: ‘You’re a liar!’ and beating me more.”
Faraj estimates he spent 30 days being within the barracks – fractures in his decrease again and neck from the torture preserving him from resting.
“We were only allowed to shower once, and they wouldn’t give us food or water for days. They’d give us one loaf of bread for three people, and if you asked for anything, you were beaten.”
Someday, he says, three younger males returned from interrogations bleeding from their bottoms, unable to maneuver.
They’d been overwhelmed and raped with sticks.
“We tried to support them as much as we could, demanding treatment. The only response was to give them half a paracetamol pill.”
‘Welcome to hell’ within the Naqab
Finally, Faraj was transferred to a Naqab Desert (Negev) detention facility.
“The guards greeted us sarcastically: ‘Welcome to hell,’” he says.
“I used to be stripped and tied to a chair with a gap within the backside. The interrogators tortured us by making use of strain and direct beatings on our delicate physique components within the excessive chilly.
I stayed like that for days, defecating in a bucket positioned below me.”
In response to Faraj, the sort of torture the jailers used trusted the prisoner’s luck.
“Once they introduced me again to the cell, I noticed prisoners whose pores and skin had melted … burned by sizzling water poured straight on their our bodies.
“They screamed day and night in pain, but none got any treatment.”
The prisoners had been moved to tents surrounded by barbed wire, about 30 prisoners crowded into every tent.
“Comfortable sleep was just a dream. We were allowed to shower once every few weeks, all of us within a one-hour window from 8am to 9am.”
Rashes and pores and skin ailments like scabies unfold among the many prisoners.
“We had one towel for 30 people, which we divided into little pieces. We had one uniform, the same one we arrived in. I got scabies several times.”
Someday, Faraj obtained offended and demanded remedy.
“That day, I was dragged and into solitary for three days … the torture was so bad.”
With no remedy at hand, Faraj says, the prisoners used what that they had, squeezing a bit of tomato water onto their pores and skin to alleviate the itching.
They got one tomato to be shared between 4 prisoners, however the discomfort was extreme sufficient to make utilizing it on their pores and skin worthwhile.
The torment of not understanding
Regardless of the every day ache of captivity, the day Faraj remembers most was when an officer informed him his spouse, kids and mom had been killed in a bombing on December 30.
“I was shocked, especially since he told me a date and showed me pictures of dead people and body parts, claiming they were my family,” Faraj remembers.
“I pretended to be calm in front of him, but I fainted when I returned to the cell.”
Faraj had no technique to verify what he had been informed, nor did different captives who had been informed their households had been killed.
One other methodology of psychological torture was telling prisoners they had been being launched, solely to take them to solitary confinement.
“When I was told I was being released this time, I didn’t believe it until I arrived in Gaza,” Faraj says.
“More than once, they told me I’d been released. I would celebrate and say goodbye to my cellmates, only to return after days of torture in solitary.”
Faraj’s greatest concern was whether or not his household was alive whereas his household had additionally misplaced hope of him returning alive.
“The day before his release, I had a nervous breakdown,” Zahwa says.
“Every day, I’d walk to connect to the internet and check who was released … I lost hope. But by God’s will, he was released.”
“Me, his wife, and his children were screaming with joy … we woke the whole camp up. Everyone thought Faraj had been killed, but we told them he was alive and free.”
Having gone by means of the torment of uncertainty, Faraj gave up his determined want for relaxation to talk to kin of different prisoners.
At the same time as he spoke to Al Jazeera, kin of lacking folks known as and visited, in search of any details about their family members.
A customer got here to ask Faraj about his brother, saying his mom and different brothers had been killed in an Israeli bombing and he desperately wanted information of his lacking brother.
Faraj recognised and tried to reassure the person, however his options modified as he looked for phrases, ultimately collapsing into tears.
The person, panicked, calls for: “Did they torture him? Did they amputate his limbs?”
Faraj tried to reassure him, saying his brother was nice.
Later, Faraj says: “What could I tell him? That his brother lost his mind in prison and is unconscious now?”
There’s a second of tearful silence.
Faraj says quietly that prisoners entrusted him with messages, telling him to share their struggling.
“All I can say is that death is a million times more merciful than prison.”
