One Samouni brother comes home in Gaza, recalls months of Israeli torture
Al Jazeera
His younger brothers are still held by Israel, while he came home exhausted and in pain after months of torture.
Deir el-Balah, Gaza – Faraj al-Samouni, 39, sits in a tent in a makeshift camp in Deir el-Balah, surrounded by his family who can hardly believe he is alive after months of Israeli captivity.
“My brothers didn’t recognise me when I was released,” he says. He is diminished, he lost 30kg (66 pounds) in captivity, 30 percent of his body weight.
It does not matter to his mother Zahwa, 56, who sits beaming next to him, welcoming visitors, many of them families of other prisoners seeking information about their detained relatives.
Faraj spent more than six months in captivity after he and his two brothers were arrested while walking down the so-called “safe corridor” on November 16 on their way to the south of Gaza.
In December, Al Jazeera spoke to Zahwa and her sister-wife Zeenat just after Faraj and his brothers Abdullah, 24, and Hamam, 16, were taken.