Khalid Jarrar is a Palestinian MP for the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [Photo by ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images]
Social media users have noted that a Palestinian prisoner who was released from Israeli jail as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal looks drastically different due to harsh prison conditions.
Khalida Jarrar, a 61-year-old Palestinian MP representing the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been in administrative detention since 26 December.
On Sunday she was released along with 89 other Palestinians as part of the first round of an exchange that also saw the release of three Israeli captives in Gaza.
On social media, users noted her condition leaving the prison, sharing before and after photos comparing her aged look compared to how she went into prison.
In August Jarrar was moved into solitary confinement, with the Palestinian Prisoners Club saying she was in a 1m-1.5m cell at Ayalon (Ramla) prison.
Addameer, a rights group based in the occupied West Bank, has reported that the cell has “barely enough space for a mattress”, and that Israeli prison authorities severely restricted clothes, hygiene, products, food and water to her.
Since 1989 Jarrar has spent numerous stints in Israeli Prison, many of which were without charge, with her latest stint being between 2017 and 2021.
Following her release on Sunday Jarrar told AP that “there’s this double feeling we’re living in. On the one hand, this feeling of freedom, that we thank everyone for, and on the other hand, this pain, of losing so many Palestinian martyrs.”
According to statics from Addameer, there are over 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons.
The Gaza ceasefire is stipulated to see the release of 737 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 33 Israeli captives held in Gaza.
