RAMALLAH 

Palestinian women, released as part of a prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas, have revealed severe mistreatment by Israeli authorities during their detention.

Bushra al-Tawil, one of the 90 Palestinians released in the prisoner exchange, shared the details of her detention with Anadolu.

Tawil, who said she was at a friend's house when she was detained, said: "Israeli forces raided my friend's house. They wrecked the house and destroyed her belongings. They didn't let me wear my headscarf. I was forcibly taken out of the house and held in detention for 14 hours without my scarf. It was the hardest situation I've ever faced in my life."

She said that an Israeli intelligence officer taunted her, saying: "You'll spend years trying to repair this house, and you'll owe your friend for the rest of your life."

"I told him about the solidarity among Palestinians. I said, 'We are in a state of war, everyone pays a price in their own way. No one owes anyone anything in our community. My friend will never ask anything from me’," she said.

Tawil also clarified that despite not posting anything on her social media, she was unjustly detained nearly 10 months ago based on these false allegations. After the detention period, she was sent to prison under Israel's "administrative detention" policy, which allows the detention of Palestinians in the occupied territories without any charges being filed.

Israeli authorities released 90 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, under the first phase of the ceasefire deal.

The three-phase deal includes a prisoner exchange and sustained calm, aiming for a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Nearly 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 110,700 others injured in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza since Oct. 2023, according to local health authorities.

*Writing By Asiye Latife Yilmaz in Istanbul