Since the beginning of 2023, Sami had worked in Israel at a slaughterhouse near the boundary with Gaza.
Sami lives in Gaza and, for the past 20 years, had supported his six children by working at my local neighborhood market. But when it came time for two of his sons to get married, he needed a bigger income.
On 7 October, he hid in a basement in one of the kibbutzim. When Israeli troops found him, they detained him in a prison along with thousands of other Palestinian workers.
They were blindfolded and stripped naked. They were forced to listen to others screaming and being tortured.
When Israeli forces interrogated Sami, they showed him a picture of his house and said that it was marked as a bombing target. They threatened to kill his wife and kids.
They interrogated him about everyone in his neighborhood and blamed him for the 7 October attacks.
After the interrogation, they kicked Sami and the other prisoners and beat them with metal rods.
They peed on the Palestinian prisoners then put them in freezing cold rooms, naked. The soldiers then soaked the mattress with water and forced Sami to sleep on it.
He slept on the same mattress with two other prisoners.
In one instance, the soldiers beat Sami until he blacked out. Sami witnessed several Palestinians die due to the beatings and torture.
The soldiers put the men in black bags, only to be taken God knows where.
After 30 days, Sami was released. But the Israeli army ensured that this release would be humiliating and inhumane, and Sami was dressed in an Israeli flag.
Sami is in his late fifties and had to have a cardiac catheterization due to high blood pressure. He is one of the kindest people I know.
