Freed from Israeli prisons, Gazans pass from ‘one hell into another’

“Life in Gaza, like prison, has been torturous, full of suffering and hunger," Mhanna said. “In prison I hadn’t experienced feeling a full stomach in more than 600 days. I came to learn that my wife, who was in Gaza the whole time, hadn’t either."

Roughly 1,700 Palestinians detained by Israel in the past few years have recently returned to Gaza. Many are trying to re-acclimate into a shattered society and figure out what is next.

Two months after the deadly Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, the Israeli Parliament passed an amendment that extended how long alleged unlawful combatants could be held without access to legal counsel or without being brought before a judge.

The Israeli military has since 2023 detained thousands of Palestinians under the law, which defines an unlawful combatant as a person who has participated either directly or indirectly in hostile acts against Israel.

Former detainees said they often went extended periods without information on their relatives or the war in Gaza. Some disappeared without their families knowing where they were or whether they were alive. They were held without being formally charged or tried, and entered a detention network where their cases were based on evidence to which the defendants and their lawyers, if they had one, didn’t get access, said Jessica Montell, executive director of HaMoked, an Israeli legal and human-rights organization.

“We don’t exactly know what the bar for being detained is, because it is all based on secret evidence," said Montell. “It is very rare for the detainees to have a lawyer present. Many Gazans we spoke with didn’t even know they were being held as unlawful combatants."

The Israeli military said Israeli law grants detainees the right to legal representation, and that classified information is used during its investigations. “For reasons relating to safeguarding information security and sources, it is understood that classified intelligence information cannot be provided to the detainee," the military said in a statement.

Alaa Sarraj, a 34-year-old freelance journalist covering the war, said he was detained at an Israeli checkpoint in November 2023. At the time, he was using a corridor to flee Israeli strikes after experiencing a near miss in Gaza City, he said. After several field interrogation sessions, he was taken into the Israeli prison system.

Hundreds of Palestinians remain held under the law, which rights groups say has led to arbitrary detentions. The Wall Street Journal has reported on detainees experiencing harsh treatment, including beatings, psychological abuse, food deprivation, crowded and unsanitary conditions, and being denied requests for medical care and legal counsel.

The Israel Prison Service said it isn’t aware of such treatment occurring under its watch, adding that it operates in accordance with the law, and that the rights of inmates are upheld, “including access to medical care and adequate living conditions." The Israeli military said in a statement that detainees found to not be involved in terrorism are released back into the Gaza Strip and that the use of violence against detainees is prohibited.

The Israeli Supreme Court in September ordered the Israel Prison Service to address inadequate food levels in its facilities.

Mhanna, who was working as director of Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza during the first months of the war, said Israeli soldiers accused his hospital of harboring militants, which led to his detention in December 2023. The doctor denied the allegation and said he was given access to an attorney only twice in two years.

His home is in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, which prewar was a more affluent district that roughly translates to “Windy Hill." He wasn’t able to recognize streets that he once saw as full of life. “What I came back to was a hill of rubble and sand," said Mhanna, whose family has been displaced from the area to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

He is now hoping to find a way to send his teenage children to live in Egypt or Jordan, so that they can continue their education. “In Gaza there are essentially no schools, no universities left," he said.

Mhanna, on the other hand, says he plans to stay in Gaza because of the acute need for medical professionals. “I am staying—there is a lot of work to do," he said. “I just need 10 days or so to rest and recover."

“They pinned on me the accusation of belonging to Hamas. They said I was a journalist who spreads false reports," said Sarraj, who denied the accusations and said he has no political affiliations.

During his nearly two years in prison, months would go by without Sarraj having any news on his five young children. Now reunited in Gaza, Sarraj says he is trying to remind his children he is their father.

“They are shy around me, especially the twins—they were just one-year-old when I was imprisoned. They are three now," he said. “When I actually got to see them in person, I couldn’t believe it. They were so grown up."

Sarraj reunited with other relatives, too, and said he learned of the deaths of an in-law, an uncle, a friend, his grandfather and a cousin, as well as the destruction of his home.

Palestinian detainees said they had little sense that they would soon be free in the weeks before their release. News about cease-fire negotiations was scant.

Hours before the exchange, the detainees say they received unexpected visitors: representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross, who soon facilitated their transfer back to Gaza.

“Even as they were loading us onto the bus, we didn’t want to get our hopes up," Sarraj said. “There were times where we would get excited about a possible release as we were being put on a bus, only to find out we were being transferred to another prison."

Footage of the Palestinian detainees being released into Gaza, wearing gray prison sweat suits, shows them looking haggard and thinner compared with photos taken before they were detained. They were met by cheering crowds.

While what some detainees described as a nightmare finally ended, their returns to Gaza have been bittersweet.

Shadi Abu Sido, a 35-year-old Gazan released in October after being held in Israeli custody since March 2024, said he didn’t recognize the enclave as he rode in a Red Cross convoy.

“I kept asking the Red Cross, ‘Where am I? This can’t be Gaza. This looks like the end of the world,’" he said.

Sleep escapes Abu Sido, he said. “I wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares," he said. “I am haunted by what I have seen."

Abu Sido said he found his home in Gaza in pieces.

“Now I am trying to rebuild my life. I am looking for a tent and can’t find one," he said. “I came out of one hell and into another."

Write to Omar Abdel-Baqui at omar.abdel-baqui@wsj.com