After brutal Israeli detention, Palestinian detainees are freed into a ruined Gaza

Palestinian detainees have spoken of their shock at returning to a Gaza unrecognizable from the one from which they were taken, as some are freed from Israeli detention with stories of brutal treatment

Palestinian detainees have spoken of their shock at returning to a Gaza unrecognizable from the one from which they were taken, as some are freed from Israeli detention with stories of brutal treatment.

Gaza is now gone, Shadi Abu Sido, 35, shouted to the cameras as he emerged from a bus in the southern city of Khan Younis on Monday. “It’s like a scene from 'Judgment Day,'” he said of the destruction.

Later, he was reunited with his wife and children, who he said his captors had falsely told him had died.

Shadi Abu Sido, 35, and his children.Abu Sido is among 1,718 Palestinian detainees released in exchange for Israeli hostages, in addition to 250 security prisoners convicted of serious crimes including murder. The detainees, taken captive since the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, had faced no charges. All 20 surviving Israeli hostages held in Gaza were released under the exchange.

Abu Sido, a cameraman for a Lebanon-based TV station who was arrested in March 2024 while filming at Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, told NBC News over the phone that he was stripped naked, handcuffed and had his rib broken when he was first arrested 19 months ago. In prison, he says he was left handcuffed and blindfolded for weeks.