Israel-Hamas war: ‘We were treated like dogs’ – released Palestinian prisoners complain of mistreatment
We’ve seen Israel’s hostages coming home in a blaze of coverage, but very little of Palestinian prisoners returning to Jerusalem as part of the truce.
There’s a good reason for that. The Israeli police in Jerusalem don’t want the homecomings filmed, celebrated or becoming the focus of gatherings and potential unrest.
In the narrow lanes of Silwan, in the shadow of Jerusalem’s Old City ramparts, paramilitary border police were out in force.
Israel-Gaza latest: US girl, 4, freed by Hamas – as third group of hostages leave Gaza
We tried to reach one house where four boys were being returned to one family. “Not now,” we were told before being firmly moved on.
The area is predominantly Arab and the scene of frequent unrest.
Ghannam Abu Ghannam was detained a year ago, charged with throwing stones at a bus
The neon blue stars of Jewish settlement buildings shine out from among the homes of Palestinians who resent their presence and the fact that the city spends millions less on their neighbourhoods than the majority Jewish west of the city.
To suppress that unrest the Israeli police routinely round up and detain teenage boys after clashes between them.
Israel has a controversial policy of administrative detention when suspects can be held for six months without trial or detention.
Ghannam hugs his mother
Twenty-one of the 39 prisoners released in Sunday’s third hostage prisoner exchange were from East Jerusalem and have been returned there.
We moved on to another prisoner’s family’s home but this time filmed from a distance until the police moved on. Inside we found the Abu Ghannam family as they welcomed home their 17-year-old son.
Ghannam Abu Ghannam was detained a year ago, charged with throwing stones at a bus. He has never been convicted, his family say. He’s now been released as part of the Gaza truce.
“It’s a gift from God,” his mother told Sky News. “It’s as if it’s a miracle.”
Israel says the minors it’s releasing as part of the truce are terrorists, but Palestinians say many are youths held without sentence for what other countries would regard as civil disorder offences.
Ghannam told Sky News prison had become much worse since the Hamas attacks on 7 October.
“Prison was humiliating. They came in and beat us ever since the war began and we were treated like dogs.”
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Other prisoners released over this truce were being held for more serious offences.
Shorouk Dwayatt said conditions in the jail where she was held had worsened after 7 October
Shorouk Dwayatt is out after serving half a 16-year sentence for stabbing an Israeli and attempting to stab another in Jerusalem’s Old City in 2015.
Her trial heard claims she had posted on Facebook of her yearning to become a martyr.
Her family claim she was acting in self defence after one of the men accosted her and tried to pull off her head scarf before shooting her.
She told Sky News she would train now to become a lawyer to help other Palestinian victims of Israel’s occupation.
Shorouk now says she wants to train to become a lawyer
She said conditions in the jail had worsened after 7 October and claimed male guards had hit and persecuted female prisoners.
She said she fears the Israelis might try and lock her up again.
“My biggest fear is to be arrested again because they’ve already threatened me with that and it’s possible that the house could be invaded at any moment.”
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Prominent Palestinian prisoner released
Israa Jaabis had been imprisoned since 2015 after being convicted of a bomb attack that wounded an Israeli police officer and left her with severe burns on her face and hands.
She had been sentenced to 11 years behind bars for the attack, but was also released as part of the exchange.
Greeting her family, Israa said: “I am shy to hug him (her son) because he became a man, when he tells me ‘my mum’ I have him back as a small child in my eyes.”
Describing conditions within the prison she was held in, she said: “Women prisoners are in a bad situation, really, and the Arab-Israeli women they don’t know about the prisoner’s movements and they don’t know how to behave with their jailers.”
There are thought to be around 7,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, 2,000 of them in administrative detention. Hundreds more have been arrested and jailed since the war began.
As the first light breaks across a quiet beach near Dunkirk, a human tide begins to move.
Dozens of migrants, many with children, rush across the sand toward the water’s edge.
French police are present, but they do not intervene.
For many of these men, women, and children, this moment marks the final chapter of a journey that began months ago, fleeing war, persecution, and economic collapse in countries as far afield as Iran, Eritrea, and Sudan.
Now, they face the potentially deadly crossing to the UK in a flimsy inflatable boat.
We watched as one vessel emerged from an inland waterway already crowded with people.
The vessel is soon dangerously overloaded.
Floating haphazardly, a baby is yanked onto the boat, as they yell out for more people to climb aboard.
Despite the dinghy taking on water – scooped out with a shoe – the crossing continues.
On the shore, police officers stood by, watching.
When I asked why no attempt was made to intervene, one officer said: “It’s for their safety.
“There are children there. We’re not going to throw grenades at them. It’s inhumane. But it’s sad.”
French police protocol, along with international law, makes such interventions legally and morally complex once boats are afloat – especially when families are involved.
Despite millions spent by the UK government to curb these crossings, the numbers continue to rise.
As of the latest count, almost 15,000 people have already made the perilous journey across the Channel this year. Many more are expected this summer as the weather window widens.
In the makeshift camps near Dunkirk, migrants wait their turn for the smugglers to signal that conditions are right.
Ali Reza told us he fled Iran after converting to Christianity. He dreams of reaching Britain, where he hopes to claim asylum.
He said: “Britain is good and accepts refugees. It has good behaviour for refugees.
“I think I’ll get a good welcome. Many Iranian people go to Britain. There’s good behaviour.”
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Back on the beach, not everyone manages to get aboard. The boat taxi service is in high demand.
Among the group, a woman from Eritrea spoke with me briefly.
Although she missed today’s crossing, she vowed to try again later in the week.
At least 25 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire at a US-backed humanitarian aid site in Gaza, according to health officials.
Medical officials at Shifa and al Quds hospitals say the people were killed as they approached the site – operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Dozens more were injured at the scene close to the former settlement of Netzarim, near Gaza City, medical officials from the Hamas-run territory added.
It comes just a day after Gaza health officials said 17 people were killed close to another GHF site in Rafah, southern Gaza.
Health officials said at least another six people were killed by Israeli gunfire as they approached a GHF site in Rafah on Wednesday.
Ten other people were also killed on Wednesday by Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to officials.
The Israeli military said its forces fired warning shots towards suspects who were advancing and which it claimed posed a threat to the troops in the area of Netzarim.
“This is despite warnings that the area is an active combat zone. The IDF is aware of reports regarding individuals injured. The details are under review,” it added.
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A total of 163 people have been killed and more than 1,000 wounded trying to reach the handful of aid sites operated by the GHF since it began work two weeks ago after a three-month blockade, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
It comes as the US ambassador to Israel said he does not think an independent Palestinian state remains a foreign policy for the Trump administration.
Mike Huckabee’s comments to Bloomberg News prompted the White House to say he spoke for himself.
When asked if a Palestinian state remains a US goal, Mr Huckabee said: “I don’t think so.”
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The deadly road to reach aid in Gaza
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Asked about Mr Huckabee’s comments, the White House referred to remarks earlier this year by Donald Trump when he pledged an American takeover of Gaza – a proposal which was condemned globally.
Rights groups, Arab states, Palestinians and the UN said such a move amounted to “ethnic cleansing”.
A farewell letter and video have been discovered at the home of a 21-year-old gunman who killed 10 people in a school shooting in Austria, as the nation observed a minute’s silence on Wednesday.
The country paused at 10am local time (9am UK time), marking the moment of the attack a day earlier at the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school in the southeastern city of Graz.
A teacher and nine students were killed – six girls and three boys aged between 14 and 17. Another 11 people were wounded.
People lit candles in honour of the victims on Wednesday. Pic: Reuters
Medics gathered at the site of the shooting on Wednesday. Pic: Reuters
Hundreds of people gathered for the silence in the central square of Austria‘s second-biggest city, some also lighting candles in memory of those killed, others hugged each other, as they tried to come to terms with the tragedy.
In the capital Vienna, trams, subway trains and buses also stopped for a minute.
Hundreds of people joined Austrian officials at a service on Tuesday evening in Graz cathedral.
Candles were lit as people gathered in Graz’s main square on Tuesday night. Pic: AP
Police said the gunman, who took his own life, was a former student at the school who had not completed his studies.
But they added they do not yet know what his motive was.
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What we know about Austria shooting
The unnamed man used two weapons in the attack, a shotgun and a pistol, which he owned legally.
On Wednesday, officers searched the home where he lived with his mother near Graz and found a pipe bomb, which was not operational, along with abandoned plans for a bombing.
Officers secured the scene after the shooting on Tuesday in Graz. Pic: Reuters
Paramedics were called to the scene on Tuesday. Pic: AP
Franz Ruf, public security director at Austria’s interior ministry, told TV network ORF about the messages which officers discovered.
“A farewell letter in analog and digital form was found. He says goodbye to his parents. But no motive can be inferred from the farewell letter, and that is a matter for further investigations,” Mr Ruf said.
He added that the wounded people were found on various levels of the school and in the front of the building, but would not speculate on whether they were specifically targeted by the gunman.
Graz, where the attack happened, is Austria’s second-largest city
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Among those in the square on Wednesday was Chiara Komlenic, 28, who said she always felt safe when she attended the school.
“I made lifelong friendships there. It just hurts to see that young girls and boys will never come back, that they experienced the worst day of their lives where I had the best time of my life… it just hurts a lot,” she said.
On Wednesday morning, local health officials said that those injured were aged between 15 and 26 and were in a stable condition.
Nine were still in intensive care units, two of whom needed further operations. Another two had been moved to regular wards.
Austria has declared three days of national mourning following what appears to be the deadliest attack in its post-Second World War history.
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