Freed Inmate Speaks of Untold Israel Horrors

Palestinian women, released as part of a prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas, have revealed severe mistreatment by Israeli authorities during their detention.

Bushra al-Tawil, one of the 90 Palestinians released in the prisoner exchange, shared the details of her detention with Anadolu.

Tawil, who said she was at a friend’s house when she was detained, said: “Israeli forces raided my friend’s house. They wrecked the house and destroyed her belongings. They didn’t let me wear my headscarf. I was forcibly taken out of the house and held in detention for 14 hours without my scarf. It was the hardest situation I’ve ever faced in my life.”

She said that an Israeli intelligence officer taunted her, saying: “You’ll spend years trying to repair this house, and you’ll owe your friend for the rest of your life.”

“I told him about the solidarity among Palestinians. I said, ‘We are in a state of war, everyone pays a price in their own way. No one owes anyone anything in our community. My friend will never ask anything from me’,” she said.

Tawil also clarified that despite not posting anything on her social media, she was unjustly detained nearly 10 months ago based on these false allegations. After the detention period, she was sent to prison under Israel’s “administrative detention” policy, which allows the detention of Palestinians in the occupied territories without any charges being filed.

Israeli authorities released 90 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, under the first phase of the ceasefire deal.

The three-phase deal includes a prisoner exchange and sustained calm, aiming for a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Nearly 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 110,700 others injured in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza since Oct. 2023, according to local health authorities.

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10 Killed as Israel Launches Attack on Jenin

Since mid-December, 2024, Israel’s military operations in the Jenin refugee camp have displaced 2,000 families, rendering the area “nearly uninhabitable,” according to Roland Friedrich, director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Meanwhile Israeli forces have encircled the Al Razi hospital in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz calls it a “security strategy shift,” while the Red Crescent reports ambulances blocked from reaching the injured.

The Israeli army launched, Tuesday, a large-scale attack on Jenin and its refugee camp after the Palestinian Authority security forces withdrew from the area.

Israeli occupation forces, accompanied by bulldozers, drones, and warplanes, stormed the city of Jenin and its refugee camp, launching an unprecedented military onslaught. The initial death toll since the onset of the aggression has reached 10, with nearly 40 others injured.

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Israel Kills More Than 15,000 Pupils in Gaza

The Ministry of Education in the Gaza Strip announced, Wednesday, the genocide committed by Israel over the course of more than 15 months resulted in the killing and disappearance of more than 15,000 Palestinian school-age children, and the targeting of 95 percent of school and educational buildings.

The ministry said in a statement: “Initial statistics indicate the martyrdom and disappearance of more than 15,000 school-age children, more than 800 education sector workers, and the injury of 50,000 male and female students.”

It added: “The horrific number of martyrs is equivalent to a mass extermination of human elements, students and workers in more than 30 schools, which reflects the extent of the crimes committed against children and educational staff.”

It explained that the genocide resulted in the killing of 1,200 male and female students enrolled in higher education institutions, more than 150 scientists, academics and workers in those institutions, and hundreds were injured and disabled.

The ministry confirmed that 95 percent of school and educational buildings were directly damaged, while 85 percent of them were completely or partially out of service due to their destruction.

It indicated that the Israeli army destroyed more than 140 administrative and academic facilities, including devices, equipment, laboratories, clinics and libraries.

The ministry estimated losses of the education sector at more than $3 billion.

It explained thousands of children were exposed to shocking experiences and unprecedented psychological pressures, which led to the emergence of psychological symptoms and trauma that require specialized interventions.

The ministry announced the completion of emergency response plans for the next stage, which includes completing the 2023/2024 school year and opening the 2024/2025 school year.

The ministry called on media outlets and human rights institutions to document the “Israeli crimes” against children and depriving them of their right to education, and to prosecute Tel Aviv before international bodies and courts.

It also appealed to supporting bodies and partner institutions to provide urgent and necessary support to relieve and rehabilitate the educational sector.

With American support, Israel committed genocide in the Gaza Strip between October 7, 2023 and January 19, 2025, leaving more than 158,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing.

Last Sunday, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel came into effect, and its first phase will last for 42 days, during which negotiations will begin to start a second and then a third phase, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States.

Israel has turned Gaza into the largest prison in the world, as it has besieged it for the last 18 years, and the genocide has forced about two million of its citizens, numbering about 2.3 million Palestinians, to flee in tragic conditions with a deliberate severe shortage of food, water and medicine.

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