January 23, 2025 at 8:10 pm
A Palestinian prisoner is welcomed by a relative upon the arrival of some 90 prisoners set free by Israel in the early hours of January 20, 2025 in the occupied West Bank town of Beitunia, on the outskirts of Ramallah. [Zain JAAFAR / AFP/ Getty Images]
Spending more than six months in Israeli jails, 17-year-old Rose Khwais, the youngest female Palestinian held by Israel, was released under the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner swap agreement that took effect on 19 January, Anadolu Agency reports.
Israeli authorities released 90 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, on Sunday night from Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah in the Occupied West Bank, under the first phase of the ceasefire deal.
Khwais was arrested in May 2024 from the Old City of East Jerusalem and sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was not previously detained before enduring this harsh experience.
“I entered prison in shock, not even knowing what a prison was,” Khwais told Anadolu upon returning to her home in East Jerusalem.
The young girl, arrested at the age of 16, said she had no knowledge of the Israeli interrogation methods or their harsh tactics.
READ: ‘Hardest situation I’ve ever faced in my life’: Palestinian woman freed from Israeli detention
“I didn’t even know what a prison cell looked like. All I had heard about prisons was from other prisoners – that it was a small room with a mattress. But I never expected it to be this bad,” she added.
Describing her experience, Khwais said: “Prison means darkness. You don’t see anyone. It’s just a lit grave.”
Glimpse of suffering
Khwais recalled various forms of suffering in Israeli detention.
“We were subjected to oppression, including the use of weapons, intimidation, and threats,” she said.
She also spoke of violations of privacy, including strip searches, intimidation and threats of harassment against girls.
“There was actual harassment,” she said, citing incidents such as girls returning from solitary confinement with their hijabs (headscarves) removed.
Due to the difficult conditions she endured behind bars, Khwais admitted: “Prison changed many things in me.”
The harsh conditions and severe interrogation methods led Khwais to develop health problems, exposing her to challenges far beyond her years in Israeli prisons.
“Prison changed me a lot. After 37 days of interrogation at Al-Maskobiya (an Israeli detention centre in West Jerusalem), I couldn’t endure anymore. On my way to court, under intense pressure, I suddenly found myself in the hospital,” she said.
Harrowing health experience
The Palestinian girl described her pains, which included signs of a stroke, fluid around her heart and blood pressure issues.
“I stayed in the hospital, and when I tried to move, I realised I was cuffed. That’s when I understood I was still in prison.”
Even while battling illness and shackles, Khwais worried more about her family’s reaction to her condition than her own suffering.
WATCH: Palestinian man screams as Israeli forces torture him
“I was afraid they would tell my family about my illness, but I still told them to inform my family,” she said.
The Israeli response was harsh, with authorities telling her it was “forbidden” and barred her from meeting her lawyer.
Khwais recounted additional hardships, including mistreatment during medical examinations.
“When I needed to be moved to another section for tests, they handled me roughly while I was shackled. One doctor even asked the police officer to call him immediately if my condition worsened,” she recalled.
Khwais said that, despite telling a police officer about her severe pain, he responded by threatening her, saying: “I’ll break your mouth.”
The young girl noted that she told him at the time that she intended to report the incident to the court and that she needed medical treatment. The Israeli officer responded by instructing his colleague to “push her with the baton”.
“Prison is terrible. Prison is prison,” she stressed.
See the sky
The greatest wish for Palestinian female prisoners, according to Khwais, was to “see the sky”.
“The prisoners wanted freedom. We could only see the sky through small squares (a ceiling of interlocked iron wires). We prayed to Allah to let us see the sky without those squares,” she said.
Speaking about her first moments after her release on Sunday, Khwais added: “We saw Mount Carmel (Haifa), the sky and so many other things.”
The ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas took effect on Sunday, suspending Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
The three-phase deal includes a prisoner exchange and sustained calm, aiming for a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 110,700 others injured in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli war has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst global humanitarian disasters ever.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
Israel does not treat Palestinian prisoners as human beings: Freed senior leader, Khalida Jarrar
January 21, 2025
Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.
January 21, 2025
MEMO
Palestinian prominent prisoner Khalida Jarrar, a figure in the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), is greeted by well-wishers following her release from Israeli prison in the early hours of January 20, 2025, in the occupied West Bank town of Beitunia, outside Ramallah [Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images]
Freed Palestinian leader, politician and activist, Khalida Jarrar, said Israeli authorities do not treat Palestinian prisoners as human beings, describing the conditions in prisons as “the worst and most difficult since the Occupation of the West Bank in 1967”, Anadolu Agency reports.
In the early hours of Monday, Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners under a ceasefire and prisoner swap agreement that suspended its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has claimed more than 47,000 lives since 7 October, 2023, and left the enclave in ruins.
Jarrar, who was held in administrative detention in December 2023, was among those set free. It came after three female Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian group, Hamas, in Gaza were released. Administrative detention is a policy that allows Israeli authorities to hold individuals without charge or trial.
Speaking to Anadolu, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who has been arrested multiple times, said Israeli prison conditions “have never been as harsh as they are now, be it the repeated assaults or constant use of tear gas”.
WATCH: Israel detains more Palestinians after hostage swap deal
Describing the state of prisons in Israel, Jarrar said the Palestinians endure “poor quality and insufficient quantity of food, as well as the solitary confinement policy practiced by the Occupation authorities.”
“I spent six months in solitary confinement,” she said, adding that “many Palestinians are held in solitary cells in very harsh conditions.”
The senior politician said what is happening in Israeli prisons is a result of policies by the current Israeli government and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right National Security Minister, who resigned after the Gaza truce, trying “to deal with the prisoners as if they “are not humans”.
As Jarrar, 61, was led through a cheering crowd, it could be seen her once-dark hair had greyed, and she looked exhausted.
“We were subjected to extreme harshness and physical assault in a deliberate and intentional attempt to humiliate and demean us,” she said.
The lawmaker stressed that the prisoners’ cause is “an integral part of our people’s causes”, and all Israeli policies against the prisoners must be confronted nationally.
Jarrar was elected as a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council in the last parliamentary elections held in 2006. She has served as the head of the assembly’s Prisoners Commission and was also appointed to the Palestinian committee for follow-up with the International Criminal Court.
Jarrar has been arrested by the Israeli army several times on accusations of affiliation to an “outlawed” party and for her role in activities supporting Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails.
READ: UK knew about Israel’s brutal torture of Palestinian detainees 50 years ago, but refused to act, British documents reveal
According to Prisoners’ Affairs groups, she was repeatedly mistreated by prison guards, affecting her well-being.
Estimates put the number of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons at over 11,000.
Hamas released the three Israeli captives under the ceasefire deal, which took effect on Sunday.
The three-phase deal includes a prisoner exchange and sustained calm, aiming for a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Palestinian prominent prisoner Khalida Jarrar, a figure in the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), is greeted by well-wishers following her release from Israeli prison in the early hours of January 20, 2025, in the occupied West Bank town of Beitunia, outside Ramallah [Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images]
Freed Palestinian leader, politician and activist, Khalida Jarrar, said Israeli authorities do not treat Palestinian prisoners as human beings, describing the conditions in prisons as “the worst and most difficult since the Occupation of the West Bank in 1967”, Anadolu Agency reports.
In the early hours of Monday, Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners under a ceasefire and prisoner swap agreement that suspended its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has claimed more than 47,000 lives since 7 October, 2023, and left the enclave in ruins.
Jarrar, who was held in administrative detention in December 2023, was among those set free. It came after three female Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian group, Hamas, in Gaza were released. Administrative detention is a policy that allows Israeli authorities to hold individuals without charge or trial.
Speaking to Anadolu, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who has been arrested multiple times, said Israeli prison conditions “have never been as harsh as they are now, be it the repeated assaults or constant use of tear gas”.
WATCH: Israel detains more Palestinians after hostage swap deal
Describing the state of prisons in Israel, Jarrar said the Palestinians endure “poor quality and insufficient quantity of food, as well as the solitary confinement policy practiced by the Occupation authorities.”
“I spent six months in solitary confinement,” she said, adding that “many Palestinians are held in solitary cells in very harsh conditions.”
The senior politician said what is happening in Israeli prisons is a result of policies by the current Israeli government and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right National Security Minister, who resigned after the Gaza truce, trying “to deal with the prisoners as if they “are not humans”.
As Jarrar, 61, was led through a cheering crowd, it could be seen her once-dark hair had greyed, and she looked exhausted.
“We were subjected to extreme harshness and physical assault in a deliberate and intentional attempt to humiliate and demean us,” she said.
The lawmaker stressed that the prisoners’ cause is “an integral part of our people’s causes”, and all Israeli policies against the prisoners must be confronted nationally.
Jarrar was elected as a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council in the last parliamentary elections held in 2006. She has served as the head of the assembly’s Prisoners Commission and was also appointed to the Palestinian committee for follow-up with the International Criminal Court.
Jarrar has been arrested by the Israeli army several times on accusations of affiliation to an “outlawed” party and for her role in activities supporting Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails.
READ: UK knew about Israel’s brutal torture of Palestinian detainees 50 years ago, but refused to act, British documents reveal
According to Prisoners’ Affairs groups, she was repeatedly mistreated by prison guards, affecting her well-being.
Estimates put the number of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons at over 11,000.
Hamas released the three Israeli captives under the ceasefire deal, which took effect on Sunday.
The three-phase deal includes a prisoner exchange and sustained calm, aiming for a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.
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