[News] ‘Less than slaves’: The Palestinians detained by Israel despite ceasefire

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 ‘Less than slaves’: The Palestinians detained by Israel despite ceasefire

*Israel has arrested more Palestinians than it has released as a result of
its ceasefire deal with Hamas.*
[image: A freed Palestinian prisoner greets her child after her release
from an Israeli jail as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire
deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied
West Bank, January 20, 2025.]
A freed Palestinian prisoner greets her child after her release from an
Israeli jail as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in
Gaza between Hamas and Israel, in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West
Bank, January 20, 2025 [Ammar Awad/Reuters]
By Mat Nashed
<https://www.aljazeera.com/author/mat_nashed_20143411712946213>
Published On 24 Jan 2025 -
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/1/24/less-than-slaves-the-palestinians-detained-by-israel-despite-ceasefire

When the Gaza ceasefire agreement
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/15/what-do-we-know-about-the-israel-gaza-ceasefire-deal>
between Israel and Hamas was announced on January 15, Ghassan Alyeean says
his first feeling was relief that the mass killing of his countrymen might
finally end.

Like everyone in the occupied West Bank, Alyeean was looking forward to
celebrating the freedom of 90 Palestinian prisoners who were to be released
in the coming days in exchange for three Israeli captives as part of the
ceasefire deal.

But the next day – January 16, three days before the ceasefire took effect
– Israeli soldiers raided Alyeean’s home in Bethlehem and abducted his
22-year-old son, Adam, who was supposed to sit university exams in the
coming days.

“They took him for no reason,” Alyeean, 60, told Al Jazeera over the phone.
“There was no way to defend him or my family.

“We are not saboteurs,” he said, meaning they were not resisting or causing
unrest.

Since the announcement of the Gaza ceasefire, Israel has arrested at least
95 Palestinians in raids and at checkpoints for no clear reasons across the
West Bank, according to Jenna Abu Hasna, a researcher with Addameer, a
Palestinian civil society organisation monitoring arrests and detentions in
the occupied territory.

Many of them were arrested in the few days around the onset of the
ceasefire which took effect on January 19.

The mass incarceration of Palestinians is just one feature of Israel’s
illegal occupation of the West Bank, which also involves expanding illegal
Israeli settlements and the mass killing, injuring and dispossession of
civilians
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/22/mapping-1800-israeli-settler-attacks-in-the-occupied-west-bank-since-october-7>,
according to rights groups and prisoners’ families.

“The situation we are living through is really difficult right now. We are
treated as slaves … or even less than slaves,” said Alyeean, from his home.

Tool of repression

Since Israel captured and occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza
during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israel has imprisoned some 800,000
Palestinians
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/17/palestinian-prisoners-day-how-many-palestinians-are-in-israeli-jails>
across the occupied territory, according to the UN
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/11/un-told-israel-turns-palestinian-territory-into-outdoor-prison>
and B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation.

“[Mass incarceration] is part of the apartheid regime,” Sharon Parnes,
spokesperson for B’Tselem, told Al Jazeera.

“It is part of trying to make Palestinian life miserable in order to make
them want to leave,” he added.

Abuhasna from Addameer also said Israel has a track record of rearresting
dozens – sometimes hundreds – of Palestinians who have been released in
“captive deals”.  Sometimes this happens straight after a deal is actioned,
sometimes months or even years later.

She referenced the captive deal for the return of Israeli soldier Gilad
Shalit, who had been captured by Hamas during a cross-border raid and
brought back to Gaza in 2005.

Five years later, Shalit was finally released in exchange for 1,027
Palestinian prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar who helped orchestrate the
October 7 attacks and who Israel killed in Gaza
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/18/how-was-yahya-sinwar-killed-what-we-know-so-far>
in October last year.

Three years later, Israel raided homes and rearrested dozens of Palestinians
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2014/8/26/west-bank-prisoners-face-israeli-re-arrest>
who had been released in the Shalit deal for no obvious reason.
[image: Gaza]A group of activists gather in front of Sde Teiman prison in
the Negev desert near the Gaza Strip, demanding the release of Palestinians
arrested by Israeli forces in Gaza and the release of Palestinians who were
arrested without charge, in Negev Desert, Israel on January 10, 2025
[Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency]

Furthermore, Israel has arrested and rearrested hundreds of people in
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/28/arrests> the West Bank since it
struck a captive deal with Hamas during a temporary ceasefire between the
two warring parties in November 2023, said Abuhasna.

“The tactic of detaining Palestinians, even during an agreement or when a
prisoner exchange is occurring is nothing new,” she told Al Jazeera.

“[The Israeli] occupation continues to detain Palestinians during the same
day when prisoners are released and sometimes days or years after because
that is what an occupation does: It violates international law,” she added.
A revolving door

Despite the recent arrests, many Palestinian families have been able to welcome
loved ones back home
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/20/celebrations-as-90-detained-palestinians-freed-from-israeli-prisons>
after the latest captive exchange on January 20.

Mohamed Amro, a 55-year-old father of seven who lives in Hebron, said he
was finally reunited with his 23-year-old daughter, Janin, who had been
abducted in the middle of the night from the family’s home during an
Israeli raid on December 3, 2023 – less than two months after the start of
the war on Gaza.

He still recalls the events of that harrowing night, which have become a
common experience for many Palestinians living under occupation in the West
Bank.

“The occupation soldiers broke down the door and stormed in and then
abducted her from her bed,” Amro told Al Jazeera.

Janin was held in administrative detention
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/29/jailed-without-charge-how-israel-holds-thousands-of-palestinian-prisoners>,
a process inherited from the United Kingdom’s colonial mandate in Palestine
which lasted from 1920 until 1948. During that time, the UK often jailed
Palestinian critics and resistance fighters without reason and without
trial and on secret charges.

When Israel gained statehood after expelling Palestinians from their land
in 1948 – an event referred to as the Nakba, or “catastrophe” – it
integrated this process in order to try Palestinians in military courts
rather than civilian courts where Israelis are tried.
8:55

Amro said his daughter still does not know of any charges brought against
her and says she was subjected to extreme mistreatment in prison. “>From the
day she was taken until the day she was released, Janin slept and woke up
on the cold floor every night. Her room was also really freezing … and she
was constantly scared,” he said.
Threats and intimidation

Amro was one of hundreds of people waiting out in the cold for about 10
hours in Beitounia, West Bank until Palestinian prisoners from the captive
exchange
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/20/who-are-the-palestinian-prisoners-released-by-israel>
were released.

The prisoners were supposed to be released around 4pm (14:00 GMT) in the
late afternoon on January 19, but this was delayed until 2am (00:00 GMT)
the next morning. When he finally saw Janin stagger out, he immediately saw
that she had lost considerable weight and had dark bags under her eyes from
sleep deprivation.

Amro quickly took his daughter home, so she could rest and finally get a
good night’s sleep after spending more than a year in prison.

“She was traumatised,” Amro told Al Jazeera. “She wasn’t able to fully
explain how they treated her in prison.”
[image: A freed Palestinian prisoner poses for a photo after being released
from an Israeli jail as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire
deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied
West Bank, January 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ammar Awad]A freed Palestinian
prisoner poses for a photo after being released from an Israeli jail as
part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza between
Hamas and Israel, in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January
20, 2025 [Ammar Awad/Reuters]

The next day, Israeli soldiers banged on Amro’s door and warned him not to
have a party or celebrate Janin’s release, or else they would arrest her
again.

He promised he wouldn’t, but he remains terrified that Israeli soldiers
will raid his home again to arrest Janin or one of his other children.

Part of living under occupation, he explained, is realising that your loved
ones can be arrested at any time for no obvious reason.

“There is a lot of fear right now because of the escalating situation in
the West Bank,” he said, in resignation.

“Every day, the occupation [army] arrests 30 to 40 or even 50 new
prisoners.”
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