One Palestinian prisoner released by Israel said he now wants to „live a decent life without occupation.“
The temporary , already extended for two days with the prospect of a further extension being discussed Thursday, has seen the Palestinian militant group release dozens of hostages in return for Israel freeing some 180 Palestinian prisoners.
Among the Palestinians released so far is 17-year-old Ahmed Abu Na’im, who served 12 months in jail for, he says, throwing stones during clashes with Israeli security forces at a protest. Israel charged him with throwing stones as well as „a bomb or incendiary device,“ which he denies. It was his third arrest in one year.
„They arrest people randomly,“ Na’im told CBS News in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the larger of the two Palestinian territories. „They accused (me) of things I did not commit.“
He said conditions in the prison where he was held changed after Hamas‘ brutal Oct. 7 terror rampage across southern Israel, which saw the group — long designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Israel and many other nations — kill some 1,200 people and seize more than 200 hostages.
Before the war, „the situation was OK, because they were bringing us food and we did not miss anything, but what we missed was our family. Then the war began. The situation changed and it became humiliating,“ Na’im told CBS News. „Any new prisoner was coming in, he looked beaten up. We requested medicine or other stuff and they refused to give it to us.“
Na’im said many of his fellow prisoners were children, some as young as 12 years old.
