Hamouda initially spent more than a day in detention at a neighbor's house in Gaza, where he said he was stripped to only his underwear. He recounted that investigators beat him when he denied his involvement with Hamas. One of the soldiers held a knife in his hand and threatened to cut off his finger unless he confessed to possessing weapons.
Hamouda said: “I assured them that I am a university student and have no connection to any military organizations.”
He said that on the afternoon of December 9, soldiers took him across the besieged border to what he assumed was an Israeli military site. From under his blindfold, he saw a large barracks surrounded by barbed wire. Every day, the soldiers heard about 120 detainees wearing gray uniforms. Armed guards patrolled. He heard a plane flying above him. Each prisoner had a wristband bearing the number: 057906.
The newspaper was unable to independently verify Hamouda's account, but it is consistent with the testimonies of six other recently released detainees who were interviewed for this story, as well as testimonies collected by human rights groups and other media reports.
Israeli forces in Gaza have arrested hundreds of Palestinians, both fighters and civilians, and detained them without charge inside Israel under a secret legal framework that human rights groups say It has never been applied on this scale before. Advocates say the system is deliberately opaque and open to abuse, allowing detainees to effectively disappear into a legal gray area.
Hamouda has no official record of his arrest. All he has is a deposit slip written in Hebrew, which he said his jailers gave him when they returned his Palestinian ID card. The undated document, shared with The Post, lists his name, ID number and date of birth. He did not mention where it was issued or who issued it.
The IDF did not respond to specific questions about the arrest or detention of Gazans interviewed for this story, but provided a general statement saying: “During the fighting in the Gaza Strip, those suspected of terrorist activities were arrested. The suspects in question are being brought to Israeli territory for further investigation.” The army went on to say that suspects not involved in terrorist activity are being returned to Gaza and those remaining in detention are being dealt with in accordance with Israeli law.
In response to a question about the alleged shooting of Jed Hamouda, the Israeli army told the newspaper that “questions of this kind will be considered at a later stage.”
The former prisoners told the newspaper that they were interrogated: Where were you on October 7? Do you work with Hamas? Who else helps Hamas? Where are the tunnels? Where are the fighters?
Muhammad Abu Zour, 24, He said he was detained for 20 days inside Israel, where soldiers withheld food as punishment.
He said: “They always insist on accusing us of belonging to Hamas.” He said that when he denied this, the soldiers kicked and beat him. Abu Zour said that the investigators made him sign a Hebrew document that he did not understand. They offered him money if he spy for Israel. He refused.
Hamouda recalls that sometimes, “the detainee does not return until he is covered in blood or bearing signs of torture, or screaming and crying from intense pain.” Other times, Gazans accused of links to Hamas are sent to another facility, he said.
Hamouda feared that this would be his fate. Instead, on December 26, soldiers handed him his identity card, put him on a bus and returned him to the southern Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing. He said that when the blindfold was removed, the light almost knocked him to the ground. The soldiers asked him to walk towards Rafah and not look back.
“Is there any track record of people who have been arrested, who have been released, who have died, I can't tell you – by law, [Israeli authorities] “There is no need for that,” said Tal Steiner, executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel. “No one knows where they are being held and under what conditions. What is the legality of their detention?
Thousands of Hamas and allied fighters invaded southern Israel on October 7 and, under cover of rockets, killed 1,200 people and took about 240 hostage, according to Israeli authorities. While Israel was fighting to reclaim the south, it said it had recovered the bodies of about 1,500 militants and arrested an unspecified number of Hamas fighters.
“Some of the detainees were arrested on October 7, which is entirely reasonable [they included] “Hamas fighters are involved in atrocities,” Steiner said. But many, many other people were arrested in Gaza during the operation, so they could be involved with Hamas. “They could also be just citizens, innocent bystanders or people suspected of involvement.”
Israeli forces arrested hundreds of Gazans as they moved through the devastated Strip to pursue Hamas. Some Palestinians were transferred from battlefields, others from hospitals or homes or as they fled along evacuation routes designated by Israel. Photos leaked in December, showing crowds of detainees blindfolded and stripped to their underwear, sparked international outrage.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says that Israel has prevented its representatives from visiting Palestinian prisoners detained since October 7.
The Israeli army said last month that “more than 700 activists from terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip have been detained for further questioning” in Israel. The Israeli army said that some “voluntarily surrendered themselves.”
The Israeli army said in a statement to the newspaper: “Detainees held by the Israeli army who are found not to be involved in terrorist activity after initial examination and interrogation are immediately released to the Gaza Strip, generally through the Kerem Shalom crossing.” “Those who should continue to be detained are brought before judicial review by a judge in accordance with Israeli law.”
The Israeli army refused to comment on the number of detainees who were detained or released, citing “security reasons.” The military referred questions regarding alleged abuses during interrogations to Israel's internal security service, Shin Bet, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Israeli Prison Service referred questions to the Israeli army and Shin Bet.
At least six Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons since October 7, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, a Ramallah-based advocacy group. The Israeli army told the newspaper that it was “aware of cases of detainee deaths” but could not provide details due to ongoing investigations.
The Israeli air and ground war in Gaza killed more than 23,000 people and injured about 59,000, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The ministry says at least 99 medical workers in Gaza are being held by Israel.
Since October 7, Israel has also intensified arrests in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where Palestinians are subject to military law. Israeli military law has not been applied in Gaza since 2005, when the state withdrew its forces from the Strip.
The Israeli military said in a statement that Gazans “involved in terrorist activity” can be arrested under the criminal law or through the Unlawful Combatants Law. Omar Shaker, HRW's Israel and Palestinian Territories director, said that under the UCL, Palestinian prisoners are subject to a form of administrative detention, or imprisonment without charge or trial. They are not classified as prisoners of war.
The IDF told the newspaper that the UCL removes a person “from the circle of hostilities” and “grants numerous procedural guarantees and fundamental rights.”
Although it was passed in 2002, it had never been applied to so many inmates at one time, Steiner said. Under the War Amendments, Israel can detain anyone for 45 days before issuing an indictment; The judge has 75 days to review the detention. A detainee can be held for 180 days without access to a lawyer.
“You can compare [the UCL] “This is about the Patriot Act,” Steiner said, referring to the US law passed after the attacks of September 11, 2001. “We are really afraid that we will see another Guantanamo, or another Abu Ghraib.”
The Israel Prison Service told the Israeli rights group Hamoked this month that 661 Gazans had been arrested under the law as of January 1, compared to 260 in December, but did not reveal where they were being held.
The only detention site publicly identified by Israeli authorities is the Sidi Timan military base, in the south, which the Israeli military said was set up as a “screening center” and medical facility after the war began. The statement said the conditions “reflect the requirements of Israeli and international law.”
The Israeli army said that detainees “receive three meals a day, water, clothes, mattresses and blankets, as well as access to toilets,” and are subject to a daily medical examination.
On Thursday, the Palestinian Prisoners' Club published the names of 51 women from Gaza who it said were being held in the Damon prison in northern Israel — a threefold increase from November. The list includes Hamouda's sister, her 69-year-old grandmother, and three cousins.
Hamouda still does not know where he was imprisoned. He said he was allowed to sleep a few hours at a time on a thin mattress. He ate three meals a day — bread with cheese, tuna, apples, or tomatoes — and could use the bathroom and drink water about once each day. Hamouda said that a doctor comes daily, but he only examines detainees with serious injuries, such as “candidates for amputation.” Many of the detainees were sick or wounded.
Hours after Abu Zour's release on December 26, he spoke to the newspaper by phone from Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, south of Gaza, where he said he was being treated for severe bruising.
Marwan Al-Hams, director of the hospital, said that other detainees arrived at their homes with similar injuries, in addition to infected wounds. In mid-December, the hospital received the body of an unidentified man, whom Israel brought to Kerem Shalom.
In response to a question about the dead man, the Israeli army told the newspaper: “An investigation is conducted into every death of a detainee. Reviews are still ongoing, so it is not possible to comment on the results of these reviews.”
Saqr Al-Jamal (59 years old) went to Al-Najjar Hospital to receive treatment on December 22 after his release from Israeli prisons. A resident of Beit Lahia, north of Gaza, said soldiers arrested him in November while he was taking shelter in an empty school.
While detained in Israel, Jamal said he would often suffer from a cold and urinate on himself. He said that the soldiers tied his hands above his head to the fence as punishment for looking through his blindfold.
Jamal told the newspaper: “I was questioned if I knew whether any of my relatives belonged to Hamas.” “They asked me if I knew the location of the explosive devices that the fighters were carrying.”
“I told them I was old and sick and didn’t know anything.”
Harb reported from London. Louay Ayoub from Rafah in the Gaza Strip contributed to the preparation of this report.
