CrossFireArarbia

After 22 Years in Israeli Jail he Walks Free; A Story of Neglect, Torture

CrossFireArabia
February 9, 2025

Muhammad Barrash spent 22 years in an Israeli prison, enduring blindness, pain, and medical neglect. On Saturday, he finally walked free.

Barrash’s story is one of unimaginable suffering. In 2002, an Israeli “Energa” shell struck him in the heart of Ramallah in the West Bank. The explosion took his left leg, damaged his right, and left him partially blind. In June 2003, Israeli forces captured him. He was sentenced to three life terms and an additional 40 years.

Prison only deepened his suffering. Within a year of his detention, Barrash lost his eyesight completely. His right eye, already injured, deteriorated due to untreated medical conditions. But he kept this secret from his mother.

“Don’t tell my mother I am blind,” he wrote in a letter from prison in 2012. “She sees me, but I cannot see her. I smile and pretend when she holds up pictures of my brothers and friends. She doesn’t know that darkness has taken over my body.”

For years, Israeli prison authorities denied him medical care. He waited endlessly for a corneal transplant. The procedure never came. His body bore the scars of war—shrapnel embedded in his flesh, his right leg deteriorating. In 2021, he discovered that Israeli prison authorities had been giving him expired cholesterol medication, worsening his condition.

Meanwhile, his mother waited. She fought to visit him. She dreamed of his freedom. And on Saturday, her prayers were answered. Barrash stepped out of prison, no longer behind bars but forever marked by the years of neglect and torment.

His release is part of the first phase of a prisoner exchange deal between the resistance and the occupation state. For many, his story symbolizes the brutal conditions faced by Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.

Despite the blindness, the wounds, and the suffering, Barrash survived. He is free. But the scars remain.

Unprecedented Torture

The harrowing experiences of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention centers have long been a subject of international concern. Recent reports highlight a disturbing escalation in the severity of torture and mistreatment.

According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS), detainees released as part of the recent prisoner exchange exhibited signs of “unprecedented” torture and starvation. Freed prisoners were observed wearing stained grey prison jumpsuits, bearing physical evidence of prolonged abuse. Testimonies revealed that many endured severe beatings leading to broken ribs, systematic medical neglect, and deliberate starvation. Some suffered from untreated skin conditions like scabies, exacerbated by the harsh prison environment.

Further reports from the Arab Workers Union indicate that Palestinian workers arrested following the October 2023 Israeli genocide in Gaza faced brutal treatment. Legal advisor Wehbe Badarneh disclosed that 34 workers died under mysterious circumstances or from alleged heart attacks while in detention. Testimonies from survivors detailed horrific abuse, including beatings, stripping, and various torture methods. These accounts suggest that some workers were tortured to death, prompting calls for international legal action against Israel.

Amnesty International has also documented a sharp increase in the use of administrative detention by Israeli authorities, leading to arbitrary arrests of Palestinians across the occupied West Bank. The organization reported that detainees suffered from inhuman and degrading treatment, with incidents of torture and deaths in custody going uninvestigated. This pattern of abuse underscores a systemic issue within the Israeli detention system according to the Quds News Network.

News

Israeli Army Kills Pregnant Woman

CrossFireArabia
February 9, 2025

An 8-month pregnant woman was killed by Israeli army fire in the northern West Bank on Sunday, the Health Ministry said. Sundus Jamal Shalabi was just 23 years old.

Her husband was also seriously injured during an Israeli military raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp east of Tulkarem city, the ministry added in a statement.

The ministry said the woman’s fetus also lost his life in the attack.

According to witnesses, Israeli forces opened fire on the family as they were displaced from the camp by the Israeli assault.

The Israeli army raided the camp early Sunday and forced several families out of their homes and converted them into military outposts.

The military claimed that the offensive targeted what it called “disruptive activities” in the camp.

The Israeli escalation follows a broader Israeli military offensive that began on Jan. 21 in Jenin and its refugee camp, as well as surrounding towns, killing at least 25 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The army expanded its assault into Tulkarem on Jan. 27, killing five more people. On Feb. 2, another assault was launched in the town of Tammun and the Far’a refugee camp in the Tubas city.

The escalation follows a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal in Gaza on Jan. 19, after more than 15 months of Israel bombardment, which has killed nearly 48,200 Palestinians and devastated the enclave.

Since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 906 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

News

Al-Duwairi: Israel’s Netzarim Withdrawal is a Retreat, a Strategic Shift

CrossFireArabia
February 9, 2025

Military strategic expert Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi said the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation army from the Netzarim axis represents a strategic shift in battle with its plan to divide and control the Gaza Strip from its north failing.

Al-Duwairi explained the Israeli occupation army tried to establish a permanent presence in the area but was forced to retreat under the pressure of battles and political agreements.

Speaking on Al Jazeera, Al-Duwairi added the occupation expanded the Netzarim axis to reach a width of 80 kilometers and a depth of between 6.5 and 7 kilometers, and established four main sites supported by four other supporting sites.

He pointed out although the occupation army began to establish infrastructure to enhance the sustainability of its presence, most of its facilities were dismantled, reflecting its awareness of the possibility of withdrawal at any moment.

He explained the recent agreement imposes on it to withdraw from Netzarim permanently. As well the military expert stressed that Israel will neither be able to remain in the Philadelphi Corridor or the buffer zone later.

A different reality

He pointed out that the Israeli plan was initially aimed at controlling the northern areas of Gaza but the resistance made sure this didn’t happen and imposed a different reality which forced the Zionist army to recalculate.

Al-Duwairi indicated that the occupation may try to procrastinate or delay the implementation of the withdrawal, but in the end it is obliged to evacuate the site on the 22nd day of the deal.

Regarding the withdrawal, he explained this move will facilitate the movement of citizens, especially in light of the siege imposed by the occupation’s control of the corridor.

However, he stressed the most important thing is to restore sovereignty – even partially – to the Palestinians, indicating the current scene is radically different from the calculations of the occupation, which wanted to impose a new political reality.

He considered the withdrawal is not just a military step, but carries political and strategic dimensions, as it reflects the failure of the Israeli vision for Gaza and confirms the will of the resistance and negotiation to impose new equations on the ground.

The ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in Gaza went into effect on 19 January and includes three stages, each lasting 42 days. During the first, negotiations will be held to start a second stage, then a third, with the mediation of Qatar, Egypt, and the United States according to Jo24.

News

Gallant: Israel Activated ‘Hannibal Directive’

CrossFireArabia
February 9, 2025

News

Riyadh Outraged at Netanyahu’s Creating ‘Palestine’ on Saudi Lands

CrossFireArabia
February 9, 2025

The Saudi Foreign Ministry announced, Sunday, its rejection of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements about establishing a Palestinian state on the Kingdom’s lands. It stated that these comments are “aimed to divert attention from the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are subjected to.”

The ministry stressed, in a statement, that “the Palestinian people have a right to their land, and are not intruders or immigrants who can be expelled whenever the brutal Israeli occupation wants.”

In response to Netanyahu, it added: “This extremist occupation mentality does not understand what the Palestinian land means to the brotherly Palestinian people and their emotional, historical and legal connection to it, and does not consider that the Palestinian people deserve life in the first place.”

https://twitter.com/sultanalnefaie/status/1888457964081537242

It continued that “this extremist occupation mentality completely destroyed Gaza and killed and injured 160,000 Palestinians, most of whom were children and women, without the slightest human feeling or moral responsibility.”

With American support, Israel committed genocide in Gaza between 7 October, 2023 and January 19, 2025, leaving more than 159,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing.

The Saudi ministry pointed out that “the owners of these extremist ideas are the ones who prevented Israel from accepting peace, by rejecting peaceful coexistence, rejecting peace initiatives adopted by Arab countries, and practicing systematic injustice against the Palestinian people for more than 75 years.”

It stressed that “the extremist occupation mentality does not care about right, justice, law, and the values established in the United Nations Charter, including the right of a person to live in dignity on his land.”

The Kingdom also appreciated “what sister countries announced in terms of condemnation, disapproval, and complete rejection of what Netanyahu stated regarding the displacement of the Palestinian people from their land,” according to the same statement.

It explained that “these positions, which reject the establishment of a Palestinian state on the lands of the Kingdom, confirm the centrality of the Palestinian cause to Arab and Islamic countries.”

The Saudi Foreign Ministry concluded by saying that “the right of the brotherly Palestinian people will remain steadfast, and no one will be able to take it away from them no matter how long it takes, and lasting peace will not be achieved except by returning to the logic of reason and accepting the principle of peaceful coexistence through the two-state solution.”

In response to its firm position adhering to the establishment of a Palestinian state, Netanyahu said on Friday that “Saudi Arabia has vast areas and can establish a Palestinian state on them,” in response to a question from the Hebrew Channel 14 broadcaster regarding Riyadh’s insistence on establishing a Palestinian state as a condition to normalize relations with Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu claimed that “Riyadh does not stipulate the establishment of a Palestinian state for normalization with Israel.”

On more than one occasion, Saudi Arabia has stipulated the Israeli government’s approval of the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders in exchange for normalizing relations.

Netanyahu’s statements come days after US President Donald Trump spoke about his country’s intention to seize the Gaza Strip and displace the Palestinians from it, and that Saudi Arabia no longer stipulates the establishment of a Palestinian state for normalization with Israel, which sparked widespread regional and international rejection.

Since 25 January, Trump has been promoting a plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries such as Egypt and Jordan, which was rejected by both countries, and was joined by other Arab countries and regional and international organizations as reported by Anadolu news.