After being released from prisons where they spent many years, 145 Palestinians who were released in exchange for Israeli prisoners did not return to their homes, but rather found themselves in exile in a hotel in Cairo under tight security surveillance.
In the luxury hotel, Murad Abu Al-Rub (49 years old) told Agence France-Presse, “I was deprived of my family for 20 years, and now nothing has changed. I cannot see my mother or my brothers.”
The ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, which was reached between the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel on October 10, stipulated the release of all prisoners detained in the Gaza Strip in exchange for about 2,000 detainees in Israeli prisons.
Among them, 154 Palestinians with life sentences were deported to Egypt, and since the middle of this month they have been staying in a hotel without identification papers, and are prohibited from leaving except with security approval.
No one wants to receive us
More than 100 other prisoners who were deported in a previous exchange between Israel and Hamas last January reside in the same hotel, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.
After 8 months, they still do not know what their fate will be and cannot move freely.
Abu Al-Rub says that the detainees who arrived in Egypt were informed by some brothers in the Hamas movement that no Arab country wants to receive us.
In hotel lobbies, deportees spend hours in phone calls with their relatives in the Palestinian territories.
When Abu Al-Rub entered prison in 2006, his younger sister was 15 years old. “I had not seen her for 20 years, and I did not recognize her when I saw her on video. His father died while he was in prison.
He was serving a 400-year prison sentence for killing 4 Israeli soldiers in an operation carried out by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah movement.
He told Agence France-Presse, “We are against deporting anyone from their homeland, not just us.”
Human rights organizations criticize Israel’s trial of Palestinians accused of threatening security before military courts, considering that it does not adhere to fair trial regulations.
Abu Al-Rub says, “We do not regret what we did, and if we return home, we will do the same thing.”
The last hours
Camille Abu Hanish, who spent 22 years in Israeli prisons convicted of murder and founding the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, says that moving from the Israeli prison to Egypt was for him “like a transition between two worlds: the world of death and the world of life. The world of restrictions and closed doors and the world of freedom and wide space.”
He continues, “With every step I took (towards the Egyptian bus), I felt like I was being born again.”
He describes the last hours before his release as “the harshest of our lives,” noting that dozens of detainees were tied together with ropes, blindfolded, and forced to bend over and handcuffed behind their backs.
He says detention conditions have worsened significantly since the start of the war in Gaza in 2023.
Abu Al-Rub says, “We no longer have any rights at all, even the simplest ones,” pointing to the ban on papers, pens, television sets, and newspapers.
He added, “All our clothes and blankets were confiscated. We slept on iron for days… and we suffered greatly in the winter,” adding, “Even the windows of the rooms were removed… and the food we were given was not enough for a small child.”
Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organizations published reports of ill-treatment inside prisons, which the Israeli Prisons Authority denied, stressing its commitment to the laws.
Before the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza, Abu Al-Rub says, the prisoners succeeded in extracting some gains, such as bringing in books, allowing them to practice sports, holding seminars, and studying remotely. “We used to play volleyball and table tennis… and hold three educational and organizational sessions a day, and learn languages.”
Mahmoud Al-Arda (50 years old) was placed in solitary confinement in 2021 after he was re-arrested after he and five others escaped from Gilboa prison through a tunnel they dug using spoons and primitive tools.
He has been sentenced to several life imprisonment since 1996 on charges of killing Israeli soldiers and belonging to the Islamic Jihad movement.
In his hotel room, which he shares with his partner in the escape, Ayham Kammji, the model talks about “daily beatings and abuse” in prison. “I have suffered more harm in the past two years than I have suffered in 30 years.”
Uncertainty
Like his comrades, Abu Hanish talks about “a pang in the heart, because we were liberated, and there are brothers and comrades who were not so fortunate, and a large portion of them remain imprisoned for decades.”
During his detention, Abu Hanish obtained a master’s degree in political science and published books.
About 11,000 Palestinian prisoners remain inside Israeli prisons, according to official Palestinian data last month.
Hassan Abd Rabbo, an expert on detainee affairs at the Palestinian Prisoners Club, said, “The deported prisoners are hosted in Egypt, while Qatar bears the accommodation expenses, until an agreement is reached on a country that can accommodate them,” noting that “things are not easy.”
Abd Rabbo explains that the proposed destinations include Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, and Malaysia. He says, “I have not been able to sleep since I arrived in Egypt. I do not want to go into my room. I prefer to sit outside and see the sky without barriers.”
Abu Hanish says, “We are in uncertainty, but whatever the next stop is, it is still a thousand times better than prison.”
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