Palestinian former detainee loses his sight due to torture in Israeli prison
WEST BANK, Nov. 02 (YPA) – From his wheelchair in a makeshift tent in the central Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Saeed Abu Foul, 28, calls on his younger brother to hand him a glass of water. He has lost all direct connection with the world around him since he was blinded ten months ago due to torture he endured inside Israel’s infamous Sde Teiman camp.
During his detention, Abu Foul, along with hundreds of other prisoners he encountered, was subjected to severe physical abuse. The worst moment, he recalls, was when a soldier struck his head with a metal chair about six weeks after his arrest.
“I lost my sight when a soldier grabbed my head and smashed my forehead several times against an iron chair. I saw what looked like a flash of white light, and then nothing since,” Abu Foul told WAFA.
He said he lost consciousness after the blows, and when he woke up, he could no longer see. “I thought it was temporary—maybe hours or days—but my vision never returned.” His eyelids have since fused shut, oozing blood and tears with a foul odor.
Despite repeated pleas for medical help, prison authorities only gave him ointment and eye drops once. “I kept asking for treatment, but they ignored me. The pain in my eyes and head never stopped—it feels like an electric current running from my head to my left eye,” he said.
Abu Foul now lives with his family in a small tent in the town of Al-Zawaida, after being displaced several times—from their destroyed home in Beit Lahiya to Gaza City, and then again due to heavy bombardment. His tent stands near a garbage dump, surrounded by the stench of waste and buzzing flies.
Israeli occupation forces abducted him along with more than 200 medical workers and displaced civilians at Kamal Adwan Hospital on December 27, 2024, after besieging the facility for weeks.
He was taken to Al-Fakhoura School in Jabalia, which soldiers had turned into a military post, where detainees were beaten through the night in freezing temperatures.
He was later moved to a base near Zikim, where soldiers confiscated his crutches—leaving him, an amputee, unable to move for months.
Prisoners in Israeli detention are reportedly subjected to killings, deliberate starvation, the intentional spread of diseases and epidemics, denial of medical treatment, and sexual assaults, including cases of rape.
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