SALFIT, (PIC)
Between two pictures separated by only two years and eight months, the story of the released prisoner and journalist Abdullah Shatat summarizes a part of the suffering of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli prisons.
In the first picture, he appears as a young man full of vitality and hope, defending the prisoners’ causes with his voice and pen, while the second picture reveals a thin body and exhausted features worn out by long detention, until the moment of freedom ended with him collapsing unconscious immediately upon his release.
An exhausted body
Upon his release, Shatat’s exhausted body could not bear the joy of liberation after years of suffering. He was directly transferred from the prison gate to Dura Hospital to receive treatment and medical care.
Shatat, the son of the town of Biddya, west of Salfit, said that his detention period, which began in October 2023, witnessed a sharp deterioration in his health condition, confirming that he lost about 50 kilograms of his weight as a result of malnutrition and harsh conditions inside the Israeli detention center.
He explained in a statement to the PIC reporter that the prisoners live in very difficult humanitarian conditions, pointing out that the rooms have become greatly overcrowded, while the amounts of food provided to them are not enough “even for birds,” as he described it.
He added that the prisoners are subjected daily to physical and psychological torture, and that the effects of this have become clear on their bodies and health, explaining that many of them suffer from severe weakness and a drop in their body temperature as a result of hunger and poor living conditions.
In a touching description of the psychological reality inside the prisons, Shatat said that the prisoners cover their heads during prayer so that no one sees their tears, in a scene that summarizes the scale of pain and oppression they experience behind bars.
He pointed out that the prisoners are forced to cover themselves with blankets even in times of extreme heat because of their permanent feeling of cold, stressing that their bodies have lost the ability to resist harsh conditions as a result of continuous depletion.
Health conditions of the prisoners
Shatat stops at the health conditions of the prisoners, pointing to the spread of scabies inside the Israeli prisons.
He says in this regard that scabies disease infected most of the prisoners, and that they stay for days and months without obtaining treatment, indicating that this increases their suffering and doubles the health dangers they face.
Three messages
In press statements, Shatat directed three messages, the first to the families of the prisoners, saying, “Do not forget your children, remember them in your prayers, for they take turns praying for you and memorize your names well.”
In his second message, he calls on human rights and legal institutions and the international community to take serious action to save the prisoners, in light of the difficult health and humanitarian conditions they face inside Israeli prisons.
As for his third message, he directs it to the official Palestinian authorities and concerned institutions, calling on them to intensify efforts to improve the conditions of the prisoners and continue the legal battles related to their rights and save those who suffer inside the prisons.
Shatat is known as a journalist and activist who dedicated years of his life to defending the prisoners’ cause and conveying their suffering to public opinion, but this time he found himself living the same experience in all its details, after he turned from a reporter of the news to a living witness to what is happening inside the prisons.
His health condition after his release turned into a miniature picture of the reality of thousands of Palestinian prisoners, who face difficult conditions amid continuous human rights demands for the necessity of providing protection for them and stopping the violations they are subjected to.
Abdullah Shatat carried with him the message of his fellow prisoners to the world, a message summarized by his exhausted features and his body that was worn out by the years of detention, calling for the rescue of those who remained behind bars before their stories turn into new pictures comparing what they were before detention and what they became after it.