Israeli raids and arrests in southern Syria push population to the brink

Survivors recount brutal prison conditions, enduring beatings, restraints, and psychological abuse by Israeli soldiers. Save Share Qatana, Syria –In the living room of his home, Ahmed explains in a low voice how he was beaten and tortured in an Israeli prison after he was arrested at a checkpoint the Israeli military had set up on the street in his village in Syria. “They stopped me, they asked for my name, asked where I’m from,” he says. “I gave my name and village. They said, ‘You need to come with us for five minutes, and we’ll bring you back.'” He says he then spent more than one year detained in Israel. For 90 days, he was in handcuffs and describes being thrown to the cell floor, beaten with sticks while restrained with his hands behind his back. “They tighten the cuffs by stamping on them with their feet, until the cuffs bite into the flesh of your wrists and also your buttocks. Sometimes they leave them tightened like this for one or two days until your hands are extremely swollen. Your hands go green, and you can’t feel them at all.” After his release this month, dozens of people gathered outside his home to congratulate him on his return, and to seek any scrap of information about their own relatives who are still missing. Al Jazeera has ascertained that there are at least 51 Syrians still detained inside Israel. Many were held in the notoriousSde Teiman military prison, but have since been transferred to facilities run by the Israel Prison Service. Al Jazeera has confirmed Syrians have been moved to Ofer, al-Jalama (Kishon) and Megiddo. A small number have been released. The impact is ongoing. Mahmoud – a pseudonym – had been home for nine days when Al Jazeera interviewed him. “Until now I feel unstable; I’m not normal. I feel crazy sometimes in the night. I go to look at my kids because I can’t believe I’m really home.” Mahmoud pauses as his six-year-old son carries in a tray of wobbling tea glasses and sets it carefully on the carpeted floor. The glasses clink, and the window shakes. The children turn their heads towards the sound of artillery. Since early August, the Israeli military has fired shells into the fields most days, preventing farmers and shepherds from working, occasionally killing livestock and regularly terrifying the population....