released into hell after twenty years in prison;
Nael al-Najjar, 47, was set to be released from Israeli prison on 17 October 2023, what he called “freedom day.”
He had been in prison for 20 years, since 2003, and he had a lot to look forward to when he returned home to the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
“My relatives were excited to receive me and celebrate me,” he said.
He envisioned for himself a “care-fee and happy life, enjoying all the feelings of love and freedom among my family and loved ones.” Once released from prison, he believed that he could finally “forget all the years I lived in captivity when I took my first breath outside.”
He also had a fiancee, his cousin Hanady, whom he loved dearly.
“She had waited for me for 13 years since our engagement was announced,” Nael said, “and she was looking forward to the day we met.”
“She told me that she wanted us to celebrate our wedding on the same day that I would be released from prison.”
Hanady was already decorating the home that they would share together. She told him “all the details and how she carefully chose the furniture for the house. She said she bought me a love bird and placed it in our house.”
A house, a wedding, his father’s embrace, sitting under the grape vines at his family’s home. These were the things Nael dreamed about in prison.
Yet on 7 October, 10 days before his anticipated release, he said he “felt very afraid for my family and I was communicating with them to check on them.”
“I was following the horrific news and scenes happening in Gaza,” he said, “and I became worried about the fate of my family.”
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