'I thought I might die': A Palestinian mother's account of Israeli detention

Each night, Saeda al-Shrafi feels as though she is back in the cell: boots in the corridor, a headcount barked in the dark, the cold of Damon prison seeping into her bones.

Even now in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian mother says she cannot leave that world behind.

Detained during the mass displacement from northern Gaza in late 2023, Shrafi was among hundreds stopped at Israeli military checkpoints as civilians were ordered south.

She had set out along what the army described as a “safe corridor”, travelling with her brother-in-law, Youssef, and her two young children - three-year-old Zain al-Din and baby Adam - hoping to escape the relentless bombardment.

Before the war, she lived quietly in Jabalia refugee camp. When the Israeli genocide began in 2023, her husband, Mohammed, a musician, went missing. Weeks later, as shells struck their building, she fled south under Israeli orders.

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