Freed Palestinians recount the 'black hole' of Israeli detention

Denied contact with his lawyer for months, now freed Palestinian prisoner Shadi Abu Sedo said he lost all sense of time while he was held in Israeli jails during the war in Gaza.

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Freed Palestinian detainee Shadi Abu Sido with his wife Hanaa Bahlul and children at their home in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, after he was released from Israeli detention as part of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, on October 14, 2023. — REUTERS

(REUTERS)

The 35-year-old resident of the Palestinian territory was arrested in March 2024, five months into the war sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Abu Sedo, a photojournalist, said he was arrested while working at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and detained at Sde Teiman prison, a military facility in Israel used to hold Gazans during the war.

At the time of his arrest the Al Shifa complex was at the centre of the war, with humanitarian organisations accusing Israel of rights violations while Israel accused Hamas of using it and other civilian facilities as command centres.

Abu Sedo was held under Israel's "unlawful combatants" law, which permits the detention of suspected members of "hostile forces" for months on end without charge.

Abu Sedo said he was repeatedly confronted with claims from the Israelis that "they had killed our children, our women and bombed our homes".

"So, when I saw (my children), honestly, it was a shock," he told AFP by telephone after his release to Gaza on October 13 under the US-brokered ceasefire.