A stone placed on the table holds his cell phone as he gives his first speech live on social media among the olive trees in the garden. “I would like to greet the people of Gaza. We have already won, but we will not stop until we drive out the occupiers and everyone is free, including my brother.” Hanan Al Barghouti, a 52-year-old Palestinian and sister of commander Nael Al Barghouti, a senior Hamas member, has only been out of prison for a few hours. You are one of the 39 prisoners at the center of the first exchange with the Qassam Brigades hostages, and the “Welcome Back” banner hanging from the roof of your villa in Kobar is a new poster of armed struggle: in addition to Her photo there is an image of militiamen pointing Kalashnikovs at two surrendered Israeli soldiers and the inscription “Thanks to our resistance, honor to our nation.” “We have a responsibility to defend Jerusalem and the prisoners.”
“With our almost artisanal means, we face one of the most powerful armies. This country is ours and we have already won. They must release all prisoners,” Hanan said in an interview with ANSA. She had been in the Damon women’s prison for four months and from October 7th – she says – the measures became much tougher for everyone: “We had to undergo an inmate count four times a day, they cut our food rations and took away our hour.” Air without letting us out of the cells, the number of which has increased: in ours we have increased from six to eleven inmates. We had no winter clothing and due to the lack of some mattresses some had to sleep on the floor.
Then he remembers the day of liberation: “I was reading the Koran like every morning when I heard a buzzing sound and the head of the guards arrived. Three names were read out, including mine: We didn’t know anything about what was happening outside for weeks.” We didn’t even have a television or a radio. They handcuffed and shackled those of us who came out amid the crush of prison guards and then took us in armored vehicles from the Mount Carmel prison (Damon Institute – Editor’s note). that of Ofer. In the late afternoon we boarded the Red Cross buses and from there we saw Israeli soldiers firing tear gas canisters into the crowd. “I wasn’t really sure I was free until I got to Bethany after I got through the checkpoint.”
The face that comes out of the white Khimar is stern, Hanan tries not to reveal his emotions until he finally gives in to the feelings: “Of course I’m happy, but I suffer for the other people in prison.” Then she moves away from her adjusts his black dress and confidently sets off again: “It is the beginning of liberation for everyone. We want our own state that stretches from the sea to the Jordan, from north to south, only in this way will the Zionists be defeated. Even our children will rise up to resist the occupation.”
In his home are posters with photos of many family members, all of whom are still imprisoned, some for decades, like his brother Nael, one of the longest-serving Palestinians in prison. Accused of murdering an intelligence officer and ordered by an Israeli court to serve a life sentence after his release along with 1,026 others over the 2011 exchange with soldier Shalit. Then, in 2014, after the murder of three young Israelis by a Hamas cell, Nael was arrested again without being released: he has been in the cell for 44 years. Her husband Mohamed emphasizes that there are almost only women in Hanan’s villa: “The others, including our four children, are all in cells. I am the only man in the family who is still free.”
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