Yusuf Miqdad spent more than two decades in an Israeli
jail where he dreamed of returning one day to a
prosperous Gaza Strip where he could make up for lost
time with his Children. Released last week, he
found his house destroyed and his homeland reduced to rubble
by Israeli bombardments. He walked through neighborhoods laid waste
by air and artillery strikes and found Palestinians displaced many
times over by the Israeli offensive, living in tents
on the beach. I was surprised by all the
destruction I've seen with the displaced of people. No
one is living in their houses. The famine I've
seen in the country. None of the basic life
necessities are available in Gaza at all. I haven't
traveled around because I can't, there's no car,
no gas and people can't even walk. People can't
walk for half a kilometer without falling into despair over
the suffering. They see dad's daughter Haya, his
favorite child was just four when he was imprisoned.
She was killed by an Israeli air strike on Gaza
City in March 1 of more than 38,000 Palestinians killed
in Gaza since the start of the war. I
didn't see her as a bride when she got married
, but I longed to see her with her Children
. I was surprised during Ramadan, I got the
news while in prison that she was martyred along with
her four Children and husband. It was such a
shock for me. Like a bolt of lightning from
the sky was seized by Israeli forces from his house
in a Gaza city suburb. During a raid in
2002, he was convicted of being a member of
Al Aqsa martyrs brigades, the armed wing of the
Fatah faction and served time in several Israeli prisons.
He said the atmosphere inside changed radically after Hamas attacked
southern Israel last October 7, killing 1200 people and
taking about 250 hostages. Prisoners were tortured, went
hungry and were humiliated. He said widespread reports of
mistreatment of detainees in Israeli prisons have added to international
pressure on Israel for its conduct of the Gaza War
. Now in its 10th month in May, the
US State Department said it was looking into allegations of
Israeli abuse of Palestinian detainees. The Israeli military did
not immediately respond to a request for comment about prison 00:02:21.318 --> conditions.