AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Gaza, where repeated Israeli attacks have killed nearly 100 Palestinians and wounded over 200 since a Trump-backed ceasefire deal went into effect over a week ago. On Friday, Israeli military forces opened fire at a civilian bus, killing 11 members of a Palestinian family attempting to return home into Gaza City. Among the Abu Shaaban family victims were seven children between the ages of 5 and 13, in an attack many have decried as the deadliest truce violation yet. Israel also bombed the headquarters of the Palestine Media Production Company in central Gaza, killing the broadcast engineer Ahmed Abu Matar.

Israel accused Hamas of killing two Israeli soldiers in Rafah, but Hamas says there are reports the soldiers died when their bulldozer ran over unexploded ordnance and that they’re not active in Rafah.

Gaza officials report Israel has breached the fragile U.S.-brokered agreement some 80 times. Despite the wave of Israeli strikes this weekend, President Trump said the ceasefire is still in place. Israel has also continued to hinder the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, again suspending the entrance of aid over the weekend, but Israeli officials are now saying aid distribution in Gaza and the ceasefire have resumed.

This all comes as more Palestinians recently released from Israeli prisons have described torture while in Israeli jails. In a minute, we’ll be joined by Al Jazeera reporter Ibrahim al-Khalili, who reunited with his brother Mohammed last week, after Mohammed was released following 19 months in Israeli prison. This is his report on Al Jazeera, his brother held without charge.

IBRAHIM AL-KHALILI: Here’s my brother. He’s back, after one year and seven months in detention, in Israeli detention, after torture. We got detained with each other, but now — I got released, and now, after one year and seven months, he’s back again home.

[translated] Mohammed, how was the situation in prison after they detained you?

MOHAMMED AL-KHALILI: [translated] It was a big struggle. We were beaten and humiliated in wrong ways. We suffered a lot.

IBRAHIM AL-KHALILI: My brother is so tired. He needs to be back home again. But I can now say the war has really came to an end.

AMY GOODMAN: Last month, Al Jazeera reporter Ibrahim al-Khalili was on air when he broke the news of Israeli forces killing his own family members in Gaza.

IBRAHIM AL-KHALILI: I’m here today reporting from Gaza’s al-Daraj neighborhood, east of Gaza City, where a deadly Israeli airstrike flattened this complete residential block behind me. Many Palestinians have been confirmed killed, and at least 50 Palestinians are still trapped under the rubble. Tragically, many of my close relatives were among those killed in this airstrike. It came without any prior warning at midnight, while people slept.

This block used to shelter at least 100 Palestinians, and they sought refuge here, believing that this residential neighborhood is safe, but they ended up being targeted and brutally killed. This area, once meant to be a place of refuge for many Palestinian families, now has become a site of death and massive destruction. It has turned into a mass graveyard for Palestinians in the light of the unprecedented escalation of Israeli attacks targeting towers, residential blocks and shelter schools, killing many Palestinians and leaving thousands with nowhere to run. Ibrahim al-Khalili, Al Jazeera, Gaza City, Palestine.

AMY GOODMAN: We now go to Gaza, where Al Jazeera reporter Ibrahim al-Khalili is joining us from Al-Shifa Hospital.

Ibrahim, welcome to Democracy Now! I want to start with your first report. I watched it live on Al Jazeera, when you reunited with your brother. Talk about why he was jailed, how long he was jailed.

IBRAHIM AL-KHALILI: Yes. First of all, thank you for having me.

My brother Mohammed, the oldest brother in my family, was detained on the 18th of March, 2024, around the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, where my family used to live. So, that day, the Israeli military stormed Al-Shifa Hospital at midnight without any prior warning, and a loudspeaker started saying, “Don’t move. The area is under extreme siege. Don’t move. The army is operating in your area. And just, basically, don’t move.” I was with my whole family inside my house at that time.

So, the Israeli military, in the morning, after midnight, they stormed my house, and then they took us all out, forced us into the freezing cold, and we were forcibly stripped of our clothes in the freezing weather. After interrogation and torture and harsh circumstances in that harsh weather, I was released, but my brother Mohammed was detained. And since that day, during that time, we did not know anything about his whereabouts. So, he was detained by the Israeli military. When the Israeli military operation assault on Al-Shifa Medical Complex came to an end, we returned back to our homes to find nothing. We have not found my brother Mohammed or the house even standing.

So, after 19 months in Israeli detention, my brother Mohammed got released, and we met up in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. And this is a very historic moment for us Palestinians, and for my family in particular, to have my brother back after 19 months in Israeli jail. As I talked to my brother Mohammed — he is tired now — he was telling me he was under extreme torture and interrogation and the harsh circumstances in Israeli prisons. He lost almost 30 kilos. He was almost 100 kilograms, but his weight had dropped to 70 kilograms during the 19 months of detention. So, this tells the whole story about the torture, interrogation and the extreme, harsh conditions all Palestinians go through in the Israeli prisons. They go well, and they just released with the unhealthy, whether mentally or physically.

So, we are — we are all lucky now to have my brother Mohammed back home to his four beautiful children and his wife, who have been waiting for him for so long. And the sense of relief and joy, happiness inside the family prevailed, after they got their loved one, Mohammed, back home after 19 months in Israeli detention. So, this is a historic moment, not for me in particular. We’re talking about 1,700 prisoners were released in that, after the ceasefire took effect. And now these families are happy, and they express a lot of joy to have their loved ones back to Gaza City, after spending years under severe and harsh condition in Israeli jails.

And the situation for other prisoners who are — still remain trapped inside Israeli prisons are very dire. Let’s just focus on these and mention these to our viewers, that the Palestinian prisoners are enduring harsh realities in terms of the lack of basic necessities. As I talked to my brother Mohammed, he was having just two meals a day, and they are not sufficient, and they are not high in proteins to help these Palestinian prisoners survive the next day. And yes, the situation remains dire, whether for the released Palestinians — they endure a lot of harsh memories in Israeli jails that last for them even after they got released from Israeli prisons. And we just focus on the Palestinian prisoners who are still held in detention.

And worth mentioning to remind our viewers that my brother Mohammed was held without any charge. He was not affiliated to any political group whatsoever. So they detained him without any — without any legal reason for him to be detained by the Israeli military and to endure all what he has been through during the 19 months in Israeli prison. These are the harsh realities Palestinian prisoners face during their time of detention in Israeli prisons.

And I talked to many prisoners, and I filmed with a prisoner who just was released after the ceasefire and war have ended. He came back home to find his family members all wiped out of the civil registry. Four hundred family members of that prisoner were killed in Israel’s war. And many, many stories, as well as another prisoner, who’s Mahmoud Abu Foul, who got his legs amputated previously, before the war, and he was detained in Kamal Adwan Hospital. And after interrogation and torture, he lost sight. He lost — he can’t see in his both eyes after the torture that he has endured in Israeli prisons. And as we continue to speak with many prisoners, the same story repeats itself of torture and harsh circumstances and lack of basic necessities. This is the harsh reality that we Palestinians all go through.

Even me, when I was detained, they claimed that I belong to a political group, which is not true, and the serious allegations and accusations against us Palestinians. And we are ordinary civilians living in Gaza City, and they still accuse us of something we don’t belong to. They just make accusations about us so that they can just create some sort of an environment or a reason to detain us and torture us in our very harsh conditions and circumstances.

And the situation also remains dire in Gaza City. The Government Media Office states that 40 — Israel committed 47 — 47 breaches. And they are — Israel is breaching the ceasefire multiple times. Like, we’re talking about 47 times when Israel committed a violation in the ceasefire. And this is something we also endure. Like, yesterday, the Israeli military targeted different sites and locations here in Gaza City. And many, many families who returned to Gaza City after the cease — first phase of the ceasefire took effect, they found nothing but rubble. They returned to a wasteland, and then seeing that Israel resumed or violated the ceasefire yesterday and started to hit different sites and locations.

One of the targeted sites were in south — southeast Gaza City, where 11 family members were targeted without any sort of a warning. The Israeli military should have just issued warning to these families, like, “You are,” for example, “being in a dangerous zone.” But instead, they ended up being targeted and brutally killed. In another attack in the wider area south of the Gaza Strip, at least three Palestinians were killed in a coffee shop without any prior warning. This is a serious violation for a ceasefire to — for us to witness as Palestinians.

And, like, many people have believed that the war has really came to an end, but with these violations that are being committed by the Israeli military on daily basis creates a sense of uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, who wished once that the war will end, and they came back to their homeland and the areas they once called home. And we’re talking about the destruction of much of Gaza’s residential neighborhoods. And these neighborhoods are not just the loss of the property. They are — they represent the loss of memory in the homeland, which thousands of Palestinians once called home, but they return to find nothing but rubble and violations and the lack of basic necessities to know these families will return to Gaza City to survive the next day.

The situation is getting much more dire. The war has not really ended for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are still struggling to survive the next day with the lack of basic necessities and the restrictions imposed on Gaza’s border crossings, whether to get the medical supplies and basic necessities, food, water and whatsoever.

At the same time, Israeli military continues to restrict the borders for patients. Hundreds of hundreds of patients are waiting for Gaza’s border crossings to be open and reopened again so that they can get the proper medication they urgently need. As I talk to doctors, medicine and medical equipment are not even available in Gaza to just conduct such operations for chronic diseases patients. So, they need the — first, the borders to be open again, so that they can survive and get the urgent treatment they need abroad. And we have talked about this many, many, many times, about the restrictions of the borders to allow aid into Gaza City. Like, before the war, Gaza needed at least 500 trucks’ worth of food and medicine to help support the population in the Gaza Strip.

AMY GOODMAN: Ibrahim, I just wanted to end by asking you — some prisoners were released, 1,700, in Gaza, to learn that their families had been killed, as you described. Then there were others who were told that their families were killed, in Israeli prison, and found them alive. I wanted to refer to Shadi Abu Sido, who said, “Gaza is now gone,” when he came out of the bus, shouting to the cameras in the southern city of Khan Younis. “It’s like a scene from Judgment Day,” he said of the destruction. Shadi Abu Sido said his world shattered in Israeli detention when guards told him his wife and two children had been killed in the Gaza war. Reuters reports he said, “I heard her voice, I heard the voice of my children, I was astonished, it cannot be explained, they were alive. I saw my wife and children alive. Imagine amid death–life.” He said, about prison, it was “the graveyard of the living.” The journalists who have gotten out and the journalists who have died, if you can comment? Most recently, this Palestine Media Production Company, just yesterday, where a broadcast engineer was killed in yet another Israeli strike, after the ceasefire went into effect, and this production company’s offices were bombed.

IBRAHIM AL-KHALILI: Yeah, yeah, these are one of the methods Israeli military and Israeli army uses to just whipping the prisoners. For example, not just Abu Sido, who was told that his family was wiped out and Gaza has been completely destroyed, but my brother Mohammed was told the same thing. The Israeli military told him that “Your family was killed,” but, in fact, we were still alive in Gaza City. And he told him that “Your brother Ibrahim, your youngest brother Ibrahim, was killed.” And these are the methods used to torture psychologically the prisoners.

So, many, many methods, not just these rumors and lies that the Israeli military uses to just torture Palestinians psychologically. And he had many, many, many of them. And when Mohammed came out, he found out that his family was alive. He told me that, “Listen, I was very worried about you, for you to be killed in Israel’s war on Gaza.” And yeah, as I said, many methods. And Mohammed just shared a testimony, a harrowing testimony, about the Israeli prisons, that I can’t mention, because many methods that human beings can’t bear to go through. And this is — this is the Israeli military, what they are using to torture, whether prisoners or the people who endured two years of Israel’s war on Gaza, of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, that we continue to endure.

And let me say that these prisoners are still, like, bearing the brunt of years and days of torture in Israeli prisons. They told them lies, that your families were completely wiped out, wiped out of the civil registry. And now they came back home to find their families alive. They were shocked, for them to being told that your family is alive, after the Israeli military claimed that your family was killed. And one of the things that the Israeli military told my brother, that they told him, “We destroyed your company.” Mohammed used to have a company in Gaza City related to the detergent and warehousing supplies, and they show him on camera that your company has been completely destroyed. And these are the methods they use just to tell us, Palestinians, that “We are going to destroy you,” or “We have already destroyed you.”

The situation remains dire. Even after the ceasefire took effect, one of the PMP media company was targeted in al-Zawayda area, south of Gaza City. And he was working with us. He was — he was a cameraman. He has kids. But he was — ended up being targeted. He thought that he survived two years of Israel’s war on Gaza. But when the Israeli military just breached the and violated the ceasefire agreement, he was taken away. He was killed in cold blood.

AMY GOODMAN: Ibrahim al-Khalili, I want to thank you so much taking this time with us, as you stand outside Al-Shifa Hospital. Ibrahim is an Al Jazeera reporter based in Gaza. He just reunited with his brother Mohammed, who was released from Israeli detention. He had been held without charge in an Israeli jail for 19 months, as so many of the 1,700 Palestinian prisoners were who were released to Gaza.

Next up, we go to Jerusalem to speak with the Israeli American human rights lawyer Sari Bashi, former program director at Human Rights Watch. Back in 20 seconds.

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AMY GOODMAN: “People Have the Power,” Patti Smith, performing at an anniversary concert of Democracy Now!