GAZA CITY, Palestine

A recently released Palestinian detainee disclosed on Friday that the Israeli army used him and several other prisoners as human shields during military operations in areas where they conducted ground incursions.

In statements made to Anadolu, Mohammed Abdel Fattah Saad, 20, said Israeli soldiers attached surveillance cameras to their bodies and forced them to enter homes and inspect destroyed military vehicles.

“They used us as human shields and strapped cameras on us to record footage of bombed houses and vehicles,” said Saad, a resident of the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

According to testimonies from other former detainees, the army would instruct them to film dangerous locations that could potentially be targeted by Palestinian militants as part of reconnaissance and information-gathering missions.

He recalled an instance when he was sent out to film a bombed Israeli military vehicle but was injured and lost consciousness.

“The next day, I woke up in a hospital, wounded,” he recounted.

On torture methods inside Israeli prisons, Saad said they were subjected to severe beatings. “One day, I asked them to release me, and they struck me forcefully with the butt of a rifle on my eyebrow.”

He further explained that the army deliberately beat, tortured, starved, and deprived Palestinian detainees of water, only allowing them to use the bathroom once a day.

Saad returned to Gaza on Friday morning through the Kerem Shalom crossing after spending 45 days in Israeli prisons.

Since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza last October, Israeli, Palestinian, and international human rights organizations have reported deteriorating conditions in Israeli prisons, particularly in the notorious Sde Teiman prison.

Since launching its ground operation in Gaza on Oct. 27, the Israeli army has detained thousands of Palestinian civilians, including women, children, and members of health and civil defense teams.

In recent months, the army has released dozens of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza in gradual intervals. Many of those released showed signs of deteriorating health, with their bodies bearing marks of torture and medical neglect.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7 last year following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 91,700 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio