A RELEASED Palestinian prisoner has described the “inhumane” conditions she faced in an Israeli prison.
Abla Saadat, the wife of imprisoned activist leader Ahmed Saadat from Ramallah, was released as part of the ceasefire agreement brokered between Hamas and Israel.
She was arrested by Israeli forces in September 2024 and spent 12 days in solitary confinement.
Speaking to Middle East Eye, she said: “I was taken to Ofer (prison), where I was interrogated.
Abla Saadat, the wife of imprisoned activist leader Ahmed Saadat from Ramallah, was released yesterday from Israeli prison and has described the “inhumane” conditions there. Saadat was arrested by Israeli forces in September 2024 and spent 12 days in solitary confinement. She… pic.twitter.com/ahMKa6JoyD
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) January 20, 2025
“I spent four months in prison, under administrative detention. My administrative detention was extended until Thursday, January 16, 2025.
“They extended it by another four months.”
Asked specifically about the conditions in the prison, Saadat they were “entirely inhumane,” including the food, healthcare and overall treatment of prisoners.
“Everything is terrible on every level,” she said.
“They try to break the prisoners’ morale. They try to make us feel like we’re beneath them and that they are dominant.
“They try to crush a person’s spirit and dignity. The humiliation that prisoners endure is unprecedented in all periods of occupation.”
When asked about her experience of solitary confinement, the woman said this started a week after her arrest.
She claimed that she was threatened by the deputy prison director, telling her: “You came here to be a leader, to destabilise the prison’s security.”
In response, Saadat asked in what way she had done this to which the deputy director threatened that she would spend her entire time in solitary confinement.
She said it was just “me and the toilet” in a “2x2.5 metre space with absolutely nothing else” and that she was not allowed to go outside for any fresh air.
Saadat added: “They brought me out on October 6 to participate in the suppression of October 7.
“The suppression was excessively harsh. They sprayed gas inside the room, before taking us out, handcuffing us, blindfolding us and forcing us to kneel in the yard.
“Most of the section experienced it, they did it to terrorise everyone. It was all just to intimidate us especially since it was October 7.
“The insults against Hamas and the resistance were harsh. It was very difficult.”
When asked about the moment of her release, Saadat said it was something she wished for every prisoner.
“Honestly, we were in living graves, and we came out of them,” she said.
