600+ Palestinian prisoners released, many show signs of torture – Ceasefire Day 37

, , , , , , , ,
600+ Palestinian prisoners released, many show signs of torture – Ceasefire Day 37
Released Palestinian prisoners accompanied by teams from the International Red Cross, arrive arrive at the European hospital for treatment in Khan Yunis, Gaza on February 27, 2025 (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced the death of a baby girl due to the severe cold weather sweeping the region, raising the number of child fatalities to seven infants, the Palestinian Information Centre reported.

More than 700 bodies have been recovered from various areas of the Gaza Strip, with most remaining unidentified due to the severity of their injuries, according to the Gaza Civil Defense. Most of the remains “consist of dismembered body parts or mere bones.”

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager, on Wednesday, near the Apartheid Wall in Qalqilia, in northwestern occupied West Bank. Hamed Fadl Muwafi, 17, was shot in the head.

Also on Wednesday, Abdul Rahman Khaled Nawas, 20, succumbed to wounds he sustained in December after an Israeli airstrike in Nur Shams, where he sustained missile fragments injuries to the head and chest.

An Israeli drone strike hit eastern Lebanon on the afternoon of 26 February, killing one person and injuring another.

Relatives of the 2-month-old baby Shem Al Shambari, who died of extreme cold, carry his body to the cemetery in Khan Younis, Gaza on February 25, 2025
Relatives of the 2-month-old baby Shem Al Shambari, who died of extreme cold, carry his body to the cemetery in Khan Younis, Gaza on February 25, 2025 (Hani Alshaer/Anadolu Agency)

Palestinian prisoners released overnight – majority Gazan noncombatants

More than 600 Palestinians prisoners were released overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, most of them in Gaza, a Hamas official told the AFP. 

According to Al Jazeera, 115 of the prisoners were serving life and long sentences. Of those, 43 will be released in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, 11 will be returned to Gaza and 97 Palestinians will be exiled out of the occupied Palestinian territories. 

An additional 445 Palestinians forcibly  disappeared from Gaza were released, along with 46 Palestinian women and children, Al Jazeera reported. 

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (Asra) reported that most who arrived in Gaza were suffering from skin diseases, according to Al Jazeera.

The prisoners were in a state of extreme emaciation, and many were unable to walk due to severe beatings and torture, said Saleh al-Hams, head of the nursing department at the European Hospital in Khan Younis.

One of the prisoners was kept overnight for treatment of lung fibrosis, while all the released prisoners received medication for scabies. The majority had suffered severe chest beatings, resulting in fractured ribs, al-Hams added.

One former prisoner arrived with an amputated hand, and another with an amputated foot due to untreated diabetes.

Many reported being tortured.

The Palestinian Red Crescent in Jerusalem received Palestinian prisoner Kazem Zawahra early on Thursday morning, as part of the prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel.

In a brief statement, the organization confirmed that its crews transferred the wounded prisoner, who has been in a coma for months, from the Israeli Hadassah Ein Kerem to Al-Hussein Hospital in Beit Jala, Bethlehem, in the southern West Bank.

Hamas handed over the bodies of 4 Israeli hostages to Israel on Wednesday night.

A first group of more than 600 prisoners due to be freed by Israel descended from a bus before a jubilant crowd
A first group of more than 600 prisoners due to be freed by Israel descended from a bus before a jubilant crowd (Getty)

Yet another Gazan detainee dies in Israeli detention

Another Palestinian detainee from the Gaza Strip has died in Israeli detention, prisoners’ affairs groups said today.

Rafat Adnan Abu Fannanah, 34, was detained by the Israeli occupation army on 7 October 2023, and died in custody, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.

Abu Fannanah, a father of one, was injured during his arrest and was held at Ayalon Prison before he was transferred to the Shamir Medical Centre southeast of Tel Aviv, where he was pronounced dead, the statement said.

His death brings to 60 the number of Palestinian detainees who have died in Israeli detention, including 39 from Gaza, since October 2023, according to Palestinian figures.

Palestinian authorities estimate that at least 297 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since Tel Aviv’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.

At least 10,000 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons. The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.

A view of Ofer Prison located between Ramallah and Jerusalem as preparations for the release of Palestinian prisoners continue, on January 30, 2025
A view of Ofer Prison located between Ramallah and Jerusalem as preparations for the release of Palestinian prisoners continue, on January 30, 2025 (Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency)

Photos of freed Palestinian reveal Israel’s brutal torture: Lost eye, severe burns after 1 year in prison

Israeli forces used brutal torture methods on Palestinian prisoners, including electric shocks, severe beatings, and exposure to corrosive chemicals, as one of those released recently lost an eye and suffered extensive burns on his skin during custody.

Mohammed Abu Tawila Images of the Palestinian posted on social media by Gazan journalists Walid Houran and Wissam Nassar Abu Tawila, who was held by Israel for a year, suffered severe chemical burns on his body and lost an eye as a result of torture in prison.
Images of the Palestinian posted on social media by Gazan journalists Walid Houran and Wissam Nassar Abu Tawila, who was held by Israel for a year, suffered severe chemical burns on his body and lost an eye as a result of torture in prison. (social media)

Palestinian Mohammed Abu Tawila is currently hospitalized, with doctors describing his condition as both physically and psychologically traumatized.

Abu Tawila, a professional engineer, has visible signs of torture on his skin, indicating that he was subjected to harmful chemicals while in detention.

He was detained in the Gaza Strip during Israeli attacks and subjected to brutal interrogation, including physical and psychological torture.

He was tortured with electric shocks, high-pressure cold water, severe beatings, and exposure to corrosive chemicals, and due to this, he lost an eye and sustained severe burns to his skin.

Abu Tawila was tortured by Israelis until his release, as he was forced to walk a long distance in handcuffs and stripped naked before being freed.

By the time he arrived at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, also known as the Kerem Shalom crossing in Israel, his condition was reported to be extremely critical.

RELATED: Hostages of Israeli revenge in the Gaza Strip: Testimonies of 100 released Palestinian detainees reveal crimes of torture, cruel treatment.

US eyes real estate takeover of Gaza under guise of ‘rebuilding’

Speaking at an event organized by the American Jewish Committee in Washington, Steve Witkoff revealed that the US plans to hold a summit with major real estate developers to discuss Gaza’s future, according to Bloomberg News.

He claimed the meeting would include top developers from the Middle East and “lots of master planners,” suggesting people would be “amazed” by the ideas presented.

His remarks follow Trump’s widely condemned proposal to seize Gaza and turn it into a beach resort after displacing Palestinians.

Critics argue this amounts to ethnic cleansing. While Witkoff denied the US was planning an “eviction” of Palestinians, he insisted it was unrealistic for them to remain in Gaza over the next decade as it is “rebuilt.”

He further suggested that unnamed countries were offering to help relocate Palestinians under the guise of “humanitarian” assistance.

RELATED: ‘Trump Gaza’ AI Video Denounced as Vicious Embrace of Ethnic Cleansing

US House committee told to use Hebrew term for Israeli-occupied West Bank: Report

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) instructed committee staff to refer to the Israeli-occupied West Bank by its Hebrew name Judea and Samaria, according to a copy of an internal committee memo obtained by Axios.

The international community, including the U.S. government, refers to the territory Israel occupied in 1967 as the West Bank and doesn’t recognize Israeli sovereignty there. Roughly 3 million Palestinians and half a million Jewish settlers live [illegally] in the West Bank.

A source with direct knowledge of Mast’s directive said the congressman sent the memo to the 50 Republican staffers on the committee on Tuesday. It is not binding for the Democratic staffers.

He wrote that “in recognition of our unbreakable bond with Israel and the inherent right of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland, the House Foreign Affairs committee will, from here forward, refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria in formal correspondence, communication and documentation.”

NOTE: Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law, and considered by many Palestinians to be the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement. 
Some settler groups, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces.
RELATED: The craziest ‘pro-Israel’ votes on the Hill today
Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarem, West Bank on February 26, 2025
Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarem, West Bank on February 26, 2025 (Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency)

Columbia’s Barnard College is first to expel students over Gaza war

Two students on Friday were expelled from Barnard College, which is part of Columbia University, for disrupting a class as an act of political protest.

The students were part of a group of four who walked into a “history of modern Israel” class on the first day of the spring semester on 21 January to “provide a discursive alternative” to a class they say “dodged questions of Palestinian self-determination and whitewashed the ongoing genocide” in Gaza.

The students distributed fliers, which interim president Katrina Armstrong says contained “violent imagery that is unacceptable on our campus”. 

Three days later, two of the students faced interim suspensions and were banned from all campus facilities, including dorms, libraries, health services, and dining halls. According to the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (Cuad) Collective Defense Working Group, all of this took place without an investigation or hearing.

On Friday, they were formally expelled less than a month after they were suspended.

Cuad says that students were not granted a representative during the investigative process and were left to prove their innocence instead of the authorities providing evidence they were guilty.

According to the group, the expulsions took place under the auspices of the Barnard Office for Student Intervention and Success, a “new disciplinary body” which issued “interim suspensions” which don’t require investigations or hearings unlike formal suspensions. 

Cuad says the new office has been used “almost exclusively” to target pro-Palestine students (continue reading here).

RELATED: Trump Threatened to Revoke Visas of Students Who Dissent. Where’s the Pushback?

New York Governor Orders CUNY Take Down Job Posting for Palestinian Studies

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has reportedly ordered a City University of New York (CUNY) college to remove a job posting for a professorship in Palestinian Studies, sparking outrage among advocates who say she is contributing to the censorship and dehumanization of Palestinians amid widespread repression of anti-Zionists across the U.S.

The New York Post, quoting Hochul’s office and CUNY officials, reported that the Democrat ordered the takedown along with an investigation into the institution, Hunter College, to “ensure that antisemitic theories are not promoted in the classroom,” seemingly without substantial cause.

CUNY complied with the order, and postings for two positions within the social sciences and arts and humanities departments have been taken down.

The order came after fervently Zionist groups waged a campaign accusing Hunter College of spreading “blood libel” in posting the jobs — a common accusation hurled by Zionist groups, often without substantial evidence to back it up — and likening the posting to Nazi propaganda. The job listing did not mention Israel or Jewish people.

“We seek a historically grounded scholar who takes a critical lens to issues pertaining to Palestine including but not limited to: settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid, migration, climate and infrastructure devastation, health, race, gender and sexuality. We are open to diverse theoretical and methodological approaches,” the posting said.

MORE NEWS:

Mondoweiss: Senior Hamas leader says movement isn’t interested in ruling Gaza, but laying down arms remains a ‘red line’
The Intercept: Bernie Sanders Hasn’t Stopped Arms Sales to Israel — But He Won’t Stop Trying
Middle East Eye: Bibas family demands Israeli government stops using captives’ deaths in public
Middle East Monitor: 500 program-makers condemn censorship, racism after BBC pulls Gaza documentary
IMEMC Daily Reports

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – FEBRUARY 26, 2025 (ongoing count):

  • At least 49,262 Palestinians killed, 119,455 injured – including:
  • at least 48,339 killed in Gaza (~14,550 children)
  • at least 923 killed in the West Bank (~186 children)
  • at least 111,753 injured in Gaza
  • at least 7,702 injured in the West Bank

WAR STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 (Hamas attack) – JANUARY 22, 2025 (Ceasefire):

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: at least 48,143 – including at least 47,283 in Gaza (~20,600 children), and 916 in the West Bank (~183 children). Palestinian injuries: at least 118,472 – including at least 111,629 in Gaza, and 7,000 in the West Bank.

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: ~1,616 (or 1,590) – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 436 (or 405) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

Enter your email address below to receive our latest articles right in your inbox.

You might also like: