Denied contact with his lawyer for months, now freed Palestinian prisoner Shady Abu Sedo described losing all sense of time while he was held in Israeli jails during the recent conflict in Gaza.

The 35-year-old resident of the Palestinian territory was arrested in March 2024, five months into the war sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Abu Sedo, a photojournalist, stated that he was apprehended while working at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City and detained at Sde Teiman prison, a military facility in Israel used to hold Gazans during the war.

At the time of his arrest, the Al-Shifa complex was at the center of the conflict, with humanitarian organizations accusing Israel of rights violations while Israel accused Hamas of utilizing it and other civilian facilities as command centers.

Abu Sedo was held under Israel's 'unlawful combatants' law, which permits the detention of suspected members of 'hostile forces' for extended periods without charge.

During his incarceration, he claimed to have been repeatedly confronted with claims from Israelis that they had killed Palestinian civilians and bombed their homes.

Upon his release to Gaza on October 13 under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, which went into effect on October 10, Abu Sedo recounted the harsh conditions he endured.

The truce resulted in the exchange of 20 living hostages held by Hamas for approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Abu Sedo described being held on his knees, handcuffed and blindfolded, with no knowledge of time or location for 100 days.

He further alleged that during interrogation, he was tortured without confirmation of his identity.

Afterward, he was transferred to Ofer military prison in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where conditions were described as +beyond imagination.' During his imprisonment, Abu Sedo was only able to speak with his lawyer twice.

He claimed not to have been charged and that his detention had been automatically extended without explanation.

The Israeli military declined to comment on his case.

According to the Red Cross, the term 'unlawful combatant' refers to someone who belongs to an armed group in a context where either the individual or the group does not fulfill the conditions for combatant status.

This term emerged in the U.S. after the September 11, 2001 attacks and was introduced into Israeli law in 2002.

It denies protections typically granted to detainees and prisoners of war.

In July 2024, Amnesty International demanded the repeal of this legislation, asserting that it arbitrarily rounds up Palestinian civilians from Gaza and holds them for prolonged periods without producing evidence of a security threat.

Additionally, in late October, Israel issued an order banning the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from visiting prisoners held as 'unlawful combatants.' Several rights groups have denounced what they perceive as incommunicado detention for Palestinian prisoners, which hampers their legal defense.

Israel currently holds around 1,000 individuals classified as 'unlawful combatants' in military and civilian prisons, according to several NGOs.

These detainees often rely on lawyers as their sole connection to the outside world.

The Israeli prison service maintains that all inmates are held according to legal procedures and that their rights, including access to medical care and adequate living conditions, are upheld.