Freed Palestinian children say fellow prisoners were 'tortured to death'

Palestinian children freed from Israeli jails as part of a prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel said they were subjected to torture in captivity and that several fellow detainees were beaten to death.

Khalil Mohamed Badr al-Zamaira, 18, was among those released on Sunday. He was 16 when he was detained by Israeli forces. 

He said Palestinian prisoners are being mistreated and beaten in prison, and there is no different treatment for children.

"They didn't differentiate between old and young," he told Middle East Eye. "Two teens were transferred from Ofer prison with broken ribs. They were unable to move."

Likewise, Omar al-Atshan, a freed Palestinian teen, said he was mistreated and tortured in Naqab prison where he had been held prior to his release. 

"The mistreatment was indescribable," he told Al Jazeera during a live coverage of the arrival of released prisoners in the occupied West Bank on Sunday. 

He added that one prisoner, which he identified as Thaer Abu Assab, was beaten to death in custody. 

"He was subjected to too much beating. We cried for help, but doctors arrived after an hour and a half after he was already dead from torture.

"He was tortured because of a question; he asked the warden whether there was a truce. Then he got beaten to death."

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