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 after I was launched,” he says. He’s diminished, he misplaced 30kg (66 kilos) in captivity, 30 p.c 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 searching for details about their detained kinfolk.
Faraj spent greater than six months in captivity after he and his two brothers had been arrested whereas strolling down the so-called “secure hall” on November 16 on their strategy 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 after I was arrested. I’m a farmer with no political exercise,” Faraj says.
“I used to be strolling via the secure hall with my spouse and youngsters, carrying my daughter. Israeli troopers referred to as Abdullah over, Hamam was upset, and the troopers referred to as him over too,” Faraj recollects.
“I used to be upset and protesting that they’d my brothers, in order that they seen me. Abu blousa hamra [man in a red shirt], come right here,” the soldier stated.
“I handed my daughter to my spouse and approached. They made us strip utterly 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 determine.
“They had been barracks, the extreme torture started there,” he says.
“The beatings targeted on delicate physique elements. Feminine troopers 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.
“Once I denied any connection to Hamas or any navy or political exercise, the interrogator would go loopy, screaming: ‘You’re a liar!’ and beating me extra.”
Faraj estimates he spent 30 days being within the barracks – fractures in his decrease again and neck from the torture conserving him from resting.
“We had been solely allowed to bathe as soon as, and so they wouldn’t give us meals or water for days. They’d give us one loaf of bread for 3 individuals, and in case you requested for something, you had been crushed.”
In the future, he says, three younger males returned from interrogations bleeding from their bottoms, unable to maneuver.
They’d been crushed and raped with sticks.
“We tried to help them as a lot as we might, demanding therapy. The one response was to offer them half a paracetamol tablet.”
‘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 elements within the excessive chilly.
I stayed like that for days, defecating in a bucket positioned underneath me.”
In line with 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 instantly on their our bodies.
“They screamed day and night time in ache, however none bought any therapy.”
The prisoners had been moved to tents surrounded by barbed wire, about 30 prisoners crowded into every tent.
“Comfy sleep was only a dream. We had been allowed to bathe as soon as each few weeks, all of us inside a one-hour window from 8am to 9am.”
Rashes and pores and skin illnesses like scabies unfold among the many prisoners.
“We had one towel for 30 individuals, which we divided into little items. We had one uniform, the identical one we arrived in. I bought scabies a number of instances.”
In the future, Faraj bought offended and demanded therapy.
“That day, I used to be dragged and into solitary for 3 days … the torture was so dangerous.”
With no therapy at hand, Faraj says, the prisoners used what they’d, squeezing a bit 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 day by day ache of captivity, the day Faraj remembers most was when an officer instructed him his spouse, kids and mom had been killed in a bombing on December 30.
“I used to be shocked, particularly since he instructed me a date and confirmed me photos of lifeless individuals and physique elements, claiming they had been my household,” Faraj recollects.
“I pretended to be calm in entrance of him, however I fainted after I returned to the cell.”
Faraj had no strategy to examine what he had been instructed, nor did different captives who had been instructed their households had been killed.
One other technique of psychological torture was telling prisoners they had been being launched, solely to take them to solitary confinement.
“Once I was instructed I used to be being launched this time, I didn’t consider it till I arrived in Gaza,” Faraj says.
“Greater than as soon as, they instructed me I’d been launched. I’d have fun and say goodbye to my cellmates, solely to return after days of torture in solitary.”
Faraj’s greatest worry was whether or not his household was alive whereas his household had additionally misplaced hope of him returning alive.
“The day earlier than his launch, I had a nervous breakdown,” Zahwa says.
“Every single day, I’d stroll to connect with the web and examine who was launched … I misplaced hope. However by God’s will, he was launched.”
“Me, his spouse, and his kids had been screaming with pleasure … we woke the entire camp up. Everybody thought Faraj had been killed, however we instructed them he was alive and free.”
Having gone via the torment of uncertainty, Faraj gave up his determined want for relaxation to talk to kinfolk of different prisoners.
Whilst he spoke to Al Jazeera, kinfolk of lacking individuals referred to as and visited, searching for 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, finally 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 wonderful.
Later, Faraj says: “What might I inform him? That his brother misplaced his thoughts in jail 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 loss of life is one million instances extra merciful than jail.”
