December 13, 2023
In a room at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, 14-year-old Mahmoud Zenda sits beside his father, Nader Zenda. The horrors of the past week remain etched on their faces, their wide eyes darting in all directions.
This account, reported by Lina Al-Safin and Maram Hamid for Al Jazeera English, details the terror and humiliation experienced by Palestinians detained by Israeli forces in Gaza. Stripped of their clothing, blindfolded, numbered, and tortured during their detention, they relive moments of fear and dehumanization.
Mahmoud and his father were among hundreds of Palestinians arrested on December 5, 2023, in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City. Over the course of five days, they endured torture and humiliation before being released without explanation.
Mahmoud, trembling, recalls: "One Israeli soldier told me I looked like his nephew, who was killed in front of his grandmother when Hamas took her hostage. He said the soldiers would slaughter all of us."
Before their ordeal, the Zenda family was trapped in their home in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza for two days as Israeli tanks advanced and artillery shelling drew closer. Those who dared to leave their homes were bombed or sniped in the streets.
On the third day, the family, sleeping on a cold tiled floor beneath mattresses to protect themselves from flying shrapnel, awoke to the sound of tanks outside their street.
"We heard soldiers shouting, and the sound of the tank was growing louder," Nader, 40, recounts. "The house was shaking—I realized an Israeli bulldozer was hitting the walls while soldiers fired shots."
Desperate, Nader tore white bedsheets to make small flags for each of his eight children. They waved the flags as they stepped out of their home, halting the bulldozer and the gunfire. But suddenly, the house was filled with Israeli soldiers.
"They made us empty our bags on the ground, forbade us from taking any money or belongings, and threw away the little food we had. They took our money, IDs, and phones," Nader recalls.
The soldiers separated the family: women and young children were placed in one room, while men and boys were placed in another. Nader, Mahmoud, and two relatives were ordered to strip before being pushed outside.
"They gathered at least 150 men from nearby homes, blindfolded and tied all of us in the street," Nader explains.
The men were loaded onto trucks, where Nader held Mahmoud tightly in his lap, terrified of what might happen if they were separated. "I didn’t want to lose my child or have him lose his father," he says.
Inside the truck, the detainees realized there were also women present. The vehicle stopped abruptly, causing the blindfolded and shackled captives to tumble onto each other.
The men and boys were taken to a warehouse, its floor covered in scattered grains of rice. There, they were beaten, interrogated, and insulted. They were left sleepless, stripped of their clothing.
14-year-old Mohammed Odeh, taken from the same Zaytoun neighborhood as Mahmoud, recounts how two boys in his area were sniped while searching for water. Bulldozers tore through walls, dragging men and boys outside where they were slapped, punched, and beaten with rifles.
"There was no reasoning with them—they kept saying we were all Hamas," Mohammed recalls. The soldiers wrote numbers on the detainees' arms; Mohammed’s was 56. When he extends his arm, the red markings are still visible.
"They spoke to us in Hebrew, and if we didn’t understand, they beat us," Mohammed continues. "They hit me on my back, ribs, and legs. They took my family, and I don’t know where they are."
Nader recalls the Israeli female soldiers spitting on the male detainees before forcing them into the warehouse. Groups of five soldiers would enter, beating one detainee while others were forced to listen to their screams. Anyone who nodded off from exhaustion had cold water poured on them.
"Their disdain for us was unnatural, as if we were less than human," Mohammed reflects.
On the fifth day, Mahmoud, Nader, and ten other men were taken to Netzarim, a former Israeli settlement south of Gaza City that is now a checkpoint. Blindfolded and exhausted, they were released and told to head south.
Once free, they removed their blindfolds, allowing their eyes to adjust to the light after days of darkness. Hungry, exhausted, and still without clothes, they walked for two hours before being spotted by other Palestinians.
"They dressed us, gave us water, and called an ambulance," Nader says. "We were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where we received IV fluids. I thought I wouldn’t make it out alive."
Nader concludes: "It was hell on Earth. Those five days in that warehouse felt like five years. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone."
Source: Al Jazeera