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.
asserted
military → explain → Syria
“They stopped me, they asked for my name, asked where I’m from,” he says.
asserted
he → stop → where
“I gave my name and village.
asserted
I → give → name
They said, ‘You need to come with us for five minutes, and we’ll bring you back.'
asserted
we → say → you
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He says he then spent more than one year detained in Israel.
asserted
he → endure → 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.
asserted
he → describe → 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.
asserted
cuffs → tighten → wrists
Sometimes they leave them tightened like this for one or two days until your hands are extremely swollen.
asserted
hands → leave → days
Your hands go green, and you can’t feel them at all.”
asserted
you → go → them
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.
asserted
who → gather → relatives
Al Jazeera has ascertained that there are at least 51 Syrians still detained inside Israel.
asserted
Jazeera → ascertain → Israel
Many were held in the notorious Sde Teiman military prison, but have since been transferred to facilities run by the Israel Prison Service.
asserted
Many → hold → Service
Al Jazeera has confirmed Syrians have been moved to Ofer, al-Jalama (Kishon) and Megiddo.
asserted
Syrians → confirm → Ofer
A small number have been released.
asserted
number → release → ?
Mahmoud – a pseudonym – had been home for nine days when Al Jazeera interviewed him.
asserted
Jazeera → interview → him
“Until now I feel unstable; I’m not normal.
asserted
I → feel → ?
I feel crazy sometimes in the night.
asserted
I → feel → night
I go to look at my kids because I can’t believe I’m really home.”
asserted
I → go → kids
Mahmoud pauses as his six-year-old son carries in a tray of wobbling tea glasses and sets it carefully on the carpeted floor.
asserted
son → pause → floor
The glasses clink, and the window shakes.
asserted
window → clink → ?
The children turn their heads towards the sound of artillery.
asserted
children → turn → 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.
asserted
military → fire → population
In September, the Sijil Center, a Syrian organisation that monitors Israeli activity, documented 280 Israeli violations of the 1974 agreement between the two countries, including incursions, raids and arrests, as well as artillery and machine-gun fire.
asserted
that → monitor → incursions
UN forces have patrolled a demilitarised zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria since the 1974 agreement, but Israel occupied more Syrian land in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024.
asserted
Israel → patrol → December
The peacekeepers remain, but have limited capacity to restrain Israeli military activity, which continues to increase.
asserted
which → remain → activity
In one incident in late August, two Israeli tanks and five other armoured vehicles descended from one of their hilltop bases and blocked the only access road to United Nations Disengagement Observer Force base 37, near the village of Jubata al-Khashab.
asserted
tanks → descend → Khashab
A man who works for the local council called the UN base, which houses a peacekeeping mission established in 1974 to maintain the Israeli-Syrian ceasefire, and asked if they needed assistance.
asserted
they → work → assistance
“I think they were offended,” he laughed.
asserted
he → think → ?
“And they told me ‘, No, stay where you are; don’t you or anybody else come down here.
asserted
you → tell → me
We’ll call for help from another base if we need it.'”
asserted
we → call → it
UNDOF confirmed to Al Jazeera that the movement of their personnel continues to be “restricted on occasion” by the Israeli military, and that Israel’s practice of setting up roadblocks and checkpoints is “preventing UNDOF from conducting its planned and mandated patrol activities”.
asserted
practice → confirm → activities
Residents sometimes seek help from peacekeepers when people are detained at checkpoints, but there is little they can do about the midnight raids.
asserted
they → seek → raids
Mahmoud was detained at 3:30am when Israeli troops surrounded his home, calling for him by name and brandishing a photo of him from social media.
asserted
troops → detain → media
Nine days after his release, he crouches, kneeling and pressing his forehead to the ground with his hands behind his head.
asserted
he → crouch → head
“They make us sit like this for hours,” he says, noting that he ended up with infected wounds on his knees from the cell floor.
asserted
he → make → floor
He has scars on his wrists and ankles from being restrained.
asserted
He → have → wrists
“They cuff you so you can’t move and then release the dogs,” he says.
asserted
he → cuff → dogs
“They have muzzles on, but they ran into us, like a body slam.”
asserted
they → have → slam
The metal muzzles, he explains, made the impact stronger and caused bleeding.
asserted
impact → explain → bleeding
“I want to tell you about the ‘disco room’,” he says.
asserted
he → want → room
…and 46 more, not listed.
The Aporia
