When Ibrahim Abo Zbeida, 42, was released from an Israeli prison this week after nearly two years, he was looking forward to reuniting with his family in Gaza. Instead, he found that world no longer existed.
Fourteen members of his family, including his mother and siblings, had been killed in Israeli strikes while he was imprisoned – and he had no idea.
“I got out to find myself with no mother, no siblings. I lost them all,” he said, holding back tears. “They told me I’d lose everything – and they fulfilled their promise.”
Mr Abo Zbeida was arrested in southern Gaza while attempting to flee heavy bombardment in his neighbourhood. He was taken to Sde Teiman, a military base that doubles as a detention centre in the Negev desert, which has been flagged for extreme torture and abuse by former detainees, whistleblowers, human rights organisations and UN experts.
“It’s not a prison, it’s a graveyard, a slaughterhouse,” Mr Abo Zbeida told The National. He described a cycle of torture, humiliation and psychological torment that he endured for 20 months.
From being forced to kneel for 18 consecutive hours to receiving only a few spoonfuls of food a day, Mr Abo Zbeida said that he and the other detainees were "tortured in every possible way".
A cancer patient, he said he was denied medical treatment for the duration of his detention in Sde Teiman. "They even fought me with my illness," he told The National. "I reached death."
Bitter freedom
Mr Abo Zbeida was among hundreds of Palestinian detainees who were freed under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that went into effect last week. The truce, part of US President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza, involved the release of hostages held in Gaza and of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
But even their long-awaited release came with cruelty, he said. "Minutes before we got on the bus to leave, they sent me a message saying: 'Tell your family that the war between us isn’t over yet. We will kill them all,'" he recalled.
Hours later, that threat became his reality. On reaching Gaza, he learnt that Israeli strikes had killed 14 members of his family. “I was surprised when they weren’t there to welcome me,” he said with tears in his eyes. “I had no idea they were gone. For 20 months, I had no idea.”
For Mr Abo Zbeida, the torment he lived through in Israeli detention was not as painful as losing his mother. "They robbed me of seeing her," he said, caressing her face in a framed family picture. "She was my whole world. Who is more precious than a mother?"
His father, Ahmad Abo Zbeida, says the son who came back is not the same man who was taken. “He was released, thank God, but the torture really changed him,” he said quietly.
Mr Abo Zbeida now struggles to remember dates, numbers and the names of his loved ones. Still, he insists he will not leave Gaza.
“They want to push us out. But where would we go?” he said. “My mother was everything to me. They took her, but they will not take our land.”
