Shadi Abu Seido, a Palestinian journalist in Gaza who was released from an Israeli prison last month, has shared his experience of physical and mental torture that began with his unlawful detention in March 2024, describing his ordeal as "20 months of psychological warfare."
Abu Seido was arrested by Israeli forces while reporting what was happening at Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in Gaza during the Israeli attacks in March 2024. He was among some 1,700 Palestinians detained in the enclave during the devastating conflict between Israel and Hamas.
He then spent 20 months in Israeli military detention, during which time he was subjected to severe abuses and lied by Israeli guards that his wife and children had been killed. Abu Seido's ordeal did not come to an end until his release on Oct 13, as part of phase one of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel that halted two years of war.
Speaking with China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Gaza City on Nov 11, Abu Seido recalled what he went through in Israeli detention.
"The army besieged the complex of Al-Shifa Hospital and announced through loudspeakers: 'Everyone must surrender.' Of course, we as civilians and myself, a journalist, stepped forward and surrendered. At the moment of seeing me, one officer came at me and broke a rib in my chest, and then they left me in the cold for more than ten hours, not to mention more beating. That was the beginning of my arrest: beatings, kicks, punches, insults, and curses," said Abu Seido.
During his imprisonment, Israeli interrogators repeatedly told him that his home had been bombed and his entire family killed, leading him into months of despair and grief. He was also subjected to physical torture, including severe beatings that caused internal bleeding in one of his eyes, without receiving any medical treatment.
"The Sde Teiman detention camp is something the human mind cannot comprehend or even begin to picture what is happening there. They have no ounce of humanity or mercy. It is hard for any person to imagine how a human being can do such things to a fellow human being," he said.
"After I entered the interrogation room, the interrogator shackled and suspended me, and said: 'We even killed journalists, and we killed your children, your wife, and all your family,'" he continued.
It was until the day of his release last month that he was overwhelmed to find out his family were alive. Though reunited, he continues struggling with profound emotional trauma and flashbacks from what he describes as "20 months of psychological warfare."
Despite deep trauma, Abu Seido has found clarity in his path forward and his message to convey.
"As I return to Gaza, my soul comes back along with my body. I will keep doing my job, so will each one of us. But the last message I want to deliver is this: save those who remain in the prisons; save my brothers who are being tortured day and night; save my brothers who are starving, who are robbed of food and sleep because of the psychological and physical torture and every other form of abuse," Abu Seido said upon his release.
Freed Gaza journalist tells 20-month ordeal in Israeli detention
