A Palestinian man released from Israeli prisons is greeted by a relative upon arrival by bus in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, on October 13, 2025. ABDELRAHMAN RASHAD / MIDDLE EAST IMAGES VIA AFP
"My children were more beautiful than the moon. Can you see the moon? They were more beautiful." Over the phone, Haitham Salem repeated the same words every few minutes, sobbing. After being released from an Israeli prison along with several hundred other Palestinian detainees in exchange for hostages held by Hamas, the father had been looking forward to reuniting with his wife and children in Gaza. The anticipation of that moment had helped him endure 11 months of incarceration, during which he said he suffered repeated abuse.
But when he stepped off the bus bringing freed prisoners back to Gaza on Monday, October 13, Salem learned that his wife and all four of their children had been killed more than a month earlier, on September 9, in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City. A video showing him receiving the news, screaming and collapsing as others tried to hold him, spread quickly across social media.
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In Israeli prisons, hunger and torture are ever-present
