Before-and-after photos of a Palestinian journalist released from Israeli detention have sparked anger on social media and calls for accountability from journalists and rights organisations, describing the Israeli prison system as a “tool for both the slow and direct killing” of detainees.
Mujahed Bani Mufleh shared a photograph of his shocking physical state after eight months in Israeli prison on his Instagram page on Wednesday.
The 36-year-old was held in administrative detention - imprisonment without charge or trial - and eventually released from Israeli prison in January. He found out just two days later that he had suffered a severe brain hemorrhage due to prison conditions and medical neglect. He required emergency surgeries and continues to face a long road to recovery, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said in a statement.
The father of three from the town of Beita, in Nablus in the occupied West Bank, described the nights in Israeli prison in a statement accompanying the images: “You lie awake between physical suffering and heavy thoughts, counting the hours and waiting for dawn as if it were salvation.”