‘Threatened with rape’: Lama Khater recalls horrors while in Israeli jails
Al Jazeera
The 47-year-old writer says verbal, physical abuse prominent against prisoners in Israeli jails following October 7.
Hebron, occupied West Bank – Lama Khater sits quietly, ready to talk but seemingly exhausted. The mother of five’s face is pale and her lips dry, but an air of relief hangs around her.
The 47-year-old had just been released from prison at the end of November, part of the sixth batch of Palestinian prisoners Israel released in exchange for Israeli captives released from Gaza by Hamas.
Khater had been in prison for about a month, an exceptionally painful one, it seemed. She was one of hundreds of Palestinians who had been arrested after the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas and the ensuing Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians there to date.
After Israeli forces stormed her home in Hebron and arrested her, she was shuttled from one detention centre to the other, unsure of what she was charged with or what would happen to her next.
A writer and journalist who has covered crimes and violations committed by the Israeli occupation – and who has been in Israeli jails herself – Khater found herself subjected to pain and indignities all over again.
