Mahmoud Abu Foul, a 28-year-old Palestinian detainee from northern Gaza, says he lost his eyesight after enduring severe torture while in an Israeli prison complex.
Arrested in late December 2023 at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, Abu Foul was among thousands detained amid Israel’s military operations across Gaza during the conflict.
He stated that Israeli guards beat him repeatedly throughout his months of imprisonment, leaving him permanently blind and suffering intense pain that remains untreated.
After eight months in custody, Abu Foul finally heard his mother’s voice again upon release — but could no longer see her face, only recognize her through sound.
He was freed this week under a United States-brokered ceasefire deal that led to the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons.
Many of those freed appeared frail, injured, or undernourished, with several alleging mistreatment during detention — claims that human-rights groups say match long-standing patterns of abuse.
Abu Foul spent part of his detention at Sde Teiman Prison, which several former prisoners have described as “a facility designed to break men” through continuous violence and deprivation.
According to his account, one day guards struck him on the head so hard that he lost consciousness. When he awoke, he found he could no longer see.
“I begged for medical treatment,” he said. “They gave me one type of eye drops only. My eyes kept tearing and hurting, but no one cared at all.”
Abu Foul says he went on a hunger strike to demand care but authorities ignored him. Guards allegedly mocked him for protesting despite his injuries.
When he was transferred to Nasser Hospital upon release, Abu Foul waited in fear, uncertain whether his family had survived the destruction in northern Gaza.
“When I heard my mother’s voice, I hugged her tightly,” he said. “I couldn’t see her, but hearing her was worth everything to me.”
Abu Foul now lives in a makeshift tent near the ruins of his former home. He still has not received specialist treatment for his eyes and hopes to travel abroad for medical care.
His testimony joins a growing collection of accounts from Palestinians alleging systematic torture, humiliation, and medical neglect in Israeli detention facilities since the outbreak of hostilities in October 2023.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) says it has documented more than 100 cases of former detainees reporting consistent patterns of beatings, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, and sexual abuse.
PCHR and other rights groups say torture appears systematic across Israel’s network of prisons — including Sde Teiman, Ketziot, and Megiddo — not limited to a few isolated sites.
Former prisoners said they were kept incommunicado for months without access to lawyers, judges, or their families and were forced to sign documents they could not read.
Israel has returned the bodies of at least 100 Palestinians who died in detention. Gazan medical teams say many showed bruises, broken bones, and marks consistent with torture.
Abu Foul had already lost one leg during an Israeli air raid in 2015. His latest ordeal, he says, has “taken the last piece of life” from him.
Dr Munir al-Bursh, Gaza’s Health Ministry director-general, said some corpses indicated “they did not die naturally — they were executed while restrained.”
The United Nations has estimated that at least 75 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli custody since October 2023, a figure that rights advocates call “deeply alarming.”
Israeli rights group B’Tselem previously described the country’s prison network as a “system of torture camps” where detainees face physical violence,pp0p0p0pp0p000ààaaaaaaaaaa starvation, and denial of medical care.
Despite hundreds of reported cases since 2023, Israeli authorities have brought indictments in only two incidents, according to the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI).
PCATI says no Israeli Prison Service staff have been formally charged in connection with the alleged abuse, fueling claims of impunity within the system.
Dr Ruchama Marton, founder of Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, said she spent decades exposing the use of torture but could not end it. “It became normalized,” she explained.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the prison service, has publicly defended strict treatment of Palestinian detainees, stating that “summer camps for terrorists are over.”
Ben-Gvir has been filmed mocking imprisoned Palestinian leaders, including Marwan Barghouti, a prominent political figure detained for over two decades.
Earlier this week, Barghouti’s son said he fears for his father’s life after reports that Israeli guards beat him during a prison transfer in September.
Arab Barghouti said Israel was targeting his father because he remains a unifying figure for many Palestinians across political factions.
Released detainees from the recent ceasefire exchange also reported seeing Barghouti assaulted by guards while being moved between facilities in southern Israel.
Currently, about 9,000 Palestinian prisoners remain in Israeli custody. Many are held under administrative detention — without formal charges or access to legal process.
Israel has denied allegations of systematic abuse, saying it adheres to international law and investigates credible claims. However, it has not provided public evidence to disprove specific accusations.
The Israeli military and Prison Service have not responded to repeated requests for comment on Abu Foul’s case or the broader allegations of mistreatment.
Human-rights advocates say the testimonies emerging from freed detainees underscore a need for international investigation into Israel’s detention system and conditions faced by Palestinians.
The United Nations Human Rights Council and several non-governmental organisations have called for independent access to Israeli detention centres to document living conditions and verify reports of abuse.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both urged Israel to end the practice of holding Palestinians without trial and ensure detainees receive medical treatment.
They argue that continued secrecy and lack of accountability violate international law and fuel further humanitarian concerns across occupied Palestinian territories.
In Gaza, families of released detainees say many return home weakened and traumatised, unable to walk unaided or suffering long-term psychological damage from their detention.
Abu Foul’s story has become a symbol for those seeking justice for Palestinians who disappeared into Israel’s prison system during the recent conflict.
“I can’t see the world anymore,” he said. “But I want people to know what they did to us. Maybe then something will change for others.”
Local activists say Abu Foul and others like him are now relying on community fundraisers to seek medical evacuation abroad for sight restoration and rehabilitation.
International aid groups say such cases highlight broader failures in the treatment of Palestinian detainees and the urgent need for oversight of Israel’s carceral practices.
Humanitarian law experts warn that torture and denial of medical care may constitute war crimes if proven to be systematic and policy-driven rather than isolated incidents.
For now, Abu Foul remains in Gaza’s devastated north, living amid rubble and loss — a young man who entered prison with one leg and emerged without his sight. The Palestinian detainee was made to suffer from all fronts.
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