Gaza reporter recalls captivity in Israel: ‘The worst 33 days of my life’

On December 7, Diaa Al-Kahlout, a 38-year-old Palestinian journalist, was detained by Israeli troops in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. He and several dozen men were forced to strip to their underwear and stand in the middle of the street. Videos and photos recorded by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) leaked out and spread throughout the world, sparking widespread condemnation. Al-Kahlout can be seen sitting on the ground with over 100 other detainees.

He endured over a month of captivity in Israeli territory, facing torture, interrogation and humiliation. On January 9, he was released without charges and returned to Gaza. “The worst 33 days of my life,” Al-Kahlout told us in a phone call from the tent he shares with other displaced people in Rafah, near the Egyptian border. He fears that the IDF will push down to the southern end of the Gaza Strip where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have fled the fighting up north.

“Around 150 Israeli soldiers and officers stormed into Beit Lahia. They came to my father’s house and took us, along with some neighbors and relatives. They forced us to take off our clothes, except for our underwear. They tied us up and threw us into military trucks. Then, they took us all the way to the Zikim military base [on the coast, north of the Gaza Strip],” said the chief correspondent in Gaza for The New Arab (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed), a London-based, pan-Arab news outlet owned by Qatari company Fadaat Media.

Al-Kahlout said he was first interrogated in Gaza by someone he believes to be a Shin Bet agent (Israel’s internal security service). The agent asked him if he was affiliated with Hamas. “I denied it and told him that I was a journalist. Their questions then focused on my reporting, and my journalism connections and sources. After that, I was physically assaulted and thrown to the ground. I ended up with a mouthful of sand.” When Al-Kahlout protested, insisting that he had nothing to do with the combatants, they gagged him with duct tape so he couldn’t talk. “They mocked me and said ‘journalist’ in English.”

After a few hours in Zikim, the detainees were moved to a military prison that Al-Kahlout believes is in the Negev desert, east of Gaza. “While we were being moved, I was assaulted and beaten. The handcuffs were painful and the blindfolds were uncomfortable. When we arrived, they put us in a brick room where we had to sleep on mats with just a blanket. We were blindfolded and handcuffed the whole time we were detained. Talking to other prisoners was strictly prohibited. They threatened to kill us, and accused us of belonging to Hamas. We were forced to kneel for hours as punishment.”

On the ninth day, the next interrogation took place. Al-Kahlout described it as “normal,” with personal questions about his profession and whereabouts on October 7, when Hamas massacred 1,200 people in southern Israel. On December 25, he was taken out of the room for another interrogation. “First, they stripped and searched me. Then, they strung me up by my wrists and beat me.” Al-Kahlout thinks he was once again in Shin Bet hands.

Food was limited to two slices of bread with a little cheese for breakfast and dinner, and another two slices with a little tuna for lunch. Sometimes they had to wait for up to an hour to use one bathroom. Throughout his detention, he was not allowed to communicate with his family or a lawyer. Al-Kahlout bitterly recalls being mocked for being unable to kneel for 16 hours a day. After his release, he sadly learned that his father-in-law died in a bombing on December 13, and that his father, wife and one of his children were also injured.

On December 20, Amnesty International condemned the “inhuman and degrading treatment” of the detainees in Beit Lahia who had disappeared with no information of their whereabouts. Prior to this, the Israeli Physicians for Human Rights organization reported the deaths of six Palestinians held in Israeli custody at various locations. On December 16, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights also raised questions about “numerous disturbing reports from northern Gaza of mass detentions, ill-treatment, and enforced disappearance of possibly thousands of Palestinian men and boys, and a number of women and girls, at the hands of Israeli Defense Forces.” Israeli authorities justified the arrests in Beit Lahia and other parts of northern Gaza because they had refused to leave what the IDF believed was a Hamas stronghold.

When asked about Al-Kahlout, an Israeli military spokesperson said, “The army detains and interrogates people in the combat zone who are suspected of engaging in terrorist activities. Those who are not involved in such activities are released... [They are treated] in accordance with international law... Terrorist suspects often need to take off their clothing so they can be searched for explosive vests and weapons.” The spokesperson did not respond to Al-Kahlout’s allegations of torture and abuse.

Since his release, Diaa Al-Kahlout, a married father of five (one with cerebral palsy), has been living in Rafah, separated from his family. They are still up north, unable to travel due to the ongoing war. The family fled their home on October 8 after receiving a threatening call from the Israeli army. They sought refuge at Al-Kahlout’s father’s house in Beit Lahia, where they all share one room. Al-Kahlout continues to report on the war, sending updates to The New Arab offices in Doha (Qatar) and London.

“Our life was going pretty well before October 7,” said Al-Kahlout. “We had a nice house in the Karama neighborhood in northwest Gaza, a car, and my kids were attending private schools. I was teaching them English, hoping it would pave the way for a better future. Sadly, the army destroyed our house and car.”

Separated from his family, Diaa Al-Kahlout continues to report from the tent in Rafah where he lives in constant pain and nightmares that disrupt his sleep. During captivity, he lost 44 pounds (20 kilos). “It was the best thing about prison,” he joked. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) 78 Palestinian reporters died between October 7, 2023, and January 31, 2024. The war in Gaza is the most dangerous conflict for journalists in modern times. Despite all he has endured, Diaa Al-Kahlout resolutely said, “I haven’t thought once about quitting my job. As a journalist, I deeply care about people’s suffering. But my children want me to leave Gaza so they don’t lose me again.”

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