dailynewslatest

Gladiators: The serious business behind ITV's prime-time 'panto'

alexdriado 2024. 01. 11. 12:11

The BBC is bringing back the Gladiators franchise in the hopes that it can reach the show's huge success from the 1990s. The new season starts on Saturday and promises to be an exciting mix of action and comedy. Reviewers thought the arena fights were stupid, but the fight to have them on screen was a big thing.

Diane Youdale says, "I'll never forget the moment I heard a 'pop.'" She talks about the fall that was "one step too close" to breaking her neck.

Millions of people follow the 26-year-old, who is known as Jet, and she rugby tackled another competitor from a high place. She then fell awkwardly to the crash mats below and caught the other competitor's body in her own.

As they helped me into the ambulance, I was in so much pain that I thought I might be able to roll away while my limbs were still working. I've done my four years and now it's time for me to step down.

As "Gladiators' very own Wonder Woman" in the pilot episode, Youdale won over a lot of fans. She did a bunch of different sports challenges against fans, and her hair flicks and backflips won them over.

The former gymnastics champion is proud to say that Day-Glo became "a Saturday-night ritual" because ITV took a chance on a new style.

The injury at a Wembley Arena event in 1996 that wasn't shown on TV was the deciding factor, but it took a heavy toll.

The ups and downs of Jet mirrored the program's own ups and downs. Behind the scenes, it had been a huge battle to convince commissioning heads of the program's promise, and it had been an even bigger battle to get the right group of enthusiastic participants together.

Around the middle of the 1980s, Youdale left Billingham, which is on Teesside, to study dance in London. She talks about when she was a "jobbing actor" and a director.

A director approached her in early 1992, and she made sure she had a seat by "blitzing" an Army assault course at Woolwich Barracks.

She was scared she would get "beaten up" because she was 5 feet 6 inches (1.67 meters) tall and weighed 9 stone 6 pounds (60 kilograms). But she knew the American version of the show and thought they were asking her to try out.

The people on the American show looked like beasts; they were strong bodybuilders and fighters. Look at that! It was just me, a little dancer!

London Weekend Television (LWT) didn't have a lot of people they could hire. However, even though they read fitness magazines and looked at the market, they didn't notice that bodybuilders back then were not useful athletes.

It wouldn't matter how much money they had to get to the bus stop on time.

They probably thought about it for a few years. They would pick an actor or actress, only to find out later that the person wasn't popular, was weird, or wasn't right for the part in some other way.

It was different from everything else in that highly sought-after time slot when it first played on ITV on October 10, 1992, along with Blind Date and Beadle's About. It was often put up against "Gotchas" and the gunge tank of BBC One's Noel's House Party.

People knew the Lycra-clad fighters as Warrior, Wolf, Shadow, and Cobra because they were so good at events like Hang Tough and Duel. In the Eliminator showdown, participants had to go through a tough assault course.

The producers in the UK wanted glitz, glamour, and mood, while the producers in the US wanted something that was studio-bound and had a small audience.

A lot of people at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena were "pumped up" by the G-Force cheerleading to famous music.

Since the third season, Jonathan Glazier has been in charge of the show. He says that LWT is "a panto" that "everyone in the family" can enjoy.

Still, there was a lot of pressure because of money worries.

"That Saturday slot was hugely important," he shares. "The channels were in a fight for the audience and it was going to be expensive to make."

Ian Hyland, a TV critic for the Daily Mirror, says that "people genuinely loved - or loved to hate - the characters" in Gladiators. This is why the show was so popular, especially after David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson's beachy Baywatch antics.

Like most people, you cheered for them too. Do keep in mind that this happened back when regular people going on TV wasn't very common.

Even though the show was "going gangbusters" when Glazier took over as director, he says the early presentations needed a new method.

"At the start, nobody quite knew what it was and so the arena wasn't always full," he said.

You were able to pull off the amazing trick of moving half of the crowd to cover empty seats with some smart editing.

"People used to make jokes about it being a glorified pillow fight, but if you've ever been on the receiving end of those pugil sticks [used in Duel] you'll understand there's nothing Toytown about it."

With millions of people watching, Youdale had her mom read the fan mail. It was "uncomfortable" at times how much attention there was.

According to her, "once the show went out it was hard to hide." The program was always happy, though, so there was never a bad or uncomfortable time. Things could have gone in a different direction.

The yearly contract reviews made things even worse because producers kept an eye on how famous and well the actors were doing. Events like Shadow's firing for drug charges got a lot of attention in the tabloids.

Help was on the way, though.

Glazier said that the goal was to make sure that everyone on board was happy. They were just regular people when they first got in touch with us.

"The machine of ITV was there to help protect them by managing their personal appearances, and contracts were as level and fair as they could be."

Youdale wanted to live a life away from "the bright lights" after she left the stage, so she went to school to become a psychotherapist and counselor.

Due to a drop in viewers, the last show of Gladiators aired in January 2000. The huge reality TV show that has taken over Saturdays since then was just around the corner.

Glazier, who is currently in Singapore as the executive producer and director of Asia's Got Talent, says, "We knew live TV was where it was going."

"The elimination singing format was perfect for that and it sustained ITV and the BBC for years."

Gladiators is coming back for a second season on BBC, with Bradley Walsh and his son Barney in charge. The show had a short comeback on Sky in 2008–09. But does it really want to win a fight that it can't?

Youdale is one of the hosts of the GladPod show and thinks it will do well. He remembers the first one from the 1990s.

"The odds are against it [having the same cultural impact] because it was new and we only had four or five channels, but with a prime-time slot it will get the energy it needs," she said.

"I'm really excited."

Tovább

The Kuomintang party in Taiwan wants people to pick between war and peace in the upcoming election

alexdriado 2024. 01. 09. 17:05

While rock music blared, dancers on stage spun around, and the crowd went crazy waving thousands of Taiwan flags.

There was a lot going on at the Kuomintang (KMT) candidate for president on January 13th gathering on Saturday.

The host yelled, “Give me a president!” The crowd yelled, “Hou You-ih!”

While Mr. Hou watched, Jaw Shaw-kong, his running mate, took the mic and attacked the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which was in power.

“What path are they taking? He waved his finger and said, “The road to war!” “The road that leads Taiwan into danger, the road that leads to uncertainty!”

The KMT is trying to make people in Taiwan think they have to choose between war and peace with China as the election this weekend gets near.

Beijing claims the self-governing island as its own, and even though it wants “peaceful reunification,” it hasn’t ruled out using force to take Taiwan.

During the eight years that the pro-sovereignty DPP has been in power, China has steadily increased its military force around Taiwan. This is known as “grayzone warfare.”

The DPP has said that they also want peace and stability, but they want to keep Taiwan on its path of growth.

A recent campaign ad that went viral showed President Tsai Ing-wen driving quietly on quiet country roads with William Lai, her party’s presidential candidate. Then she gets out, and Mr. Lai takes the wheel with Hsiao Bi-Khim, his running mate. “Drive better than I do,” Ms. Tsai tells them.

But some people don’t believe he can do the job.

There were a lot of die-hard KMT supporters at the gathering in Taoyuan, but many of the people the BBC talked to were more worried about the economy and the cost of living. But things with China were also very important.

“I used to not think there was a chance of war, but now there is, and it’s scary.” “The DPP is too hostile; I want to return to peace with the KMT,” Ms. Shi, a 45-year-old service worker who was with her parents, said.

“We should look at how China takes care of its people and learn from them.” Take a look at their infrastructure and high-speed train. China is so far ahead that even their phones are better. “We don’t have that,” said Ms. Tu, 58.

“I’m not saying we should join together, but I do think we should work together more.” “We are the same people as China and we believe in the same things,” Mr. Li, a KMT party member, said.

“A tricky balancing act”
In the Chinese civil war many years ago, the KMT fought the Chinese Communist Party, which was its fierce enemy, and lost. They then ran away to Taiwan. It now likes stronger ties.

This is mostly because their economies are becoming more and more connected. China has become an important economic support for Taiwan because it buys the most Taiwanese goods.

A huge number of Taiwanese businessmen, or “taishang,” depend on the mainland to make a living. There are a lot of taishang who have traditionally backed the KMT.

The KMT’s party color is blue, and the “deep blue” group that wants the strongest ties with China still has a lot of power.

There are a lot of them who are from the so-called “1949 generation,” who left China when Mao Zedong’s communist army took over. For them, the country is still very important.

But over the past few years, the KMT has had a harder time finding the right balance.

It wants to have close ties with China, but it also wants to stay important to voters who are moving farther away from the mainland. It has been in power in Taiwan for decades, but the DPP has recently won some elections.

Polls show that most Taiwanese believe they have a unique Taiwanese culture and would rather keep things the same, which means they don’t want to declare independence or join with the mainland.

The KMT has had to tone down its message, saying that it is not “pro-China” but rather wants to improve ties with China.

It has put forward Mr. Hou as its presidential candidate. He is an ex-cop who is seen as a “light blue” centrist and a “benshengren” from a family in Taiwan. Recently, Mr. Hou replied to Xi Jinping’s renewed promise to unite the two sides by saying he would “forever protect Taiwan’s democratic system” and freedoms.

In the same way, Mr. Jaw, a fiery “deep blue” media personality who has pushed for unification in the past, recently said that China and Taiwan’s systems were “too different” and told voters that he would not push for unification if he was elected vice president.

People still think that the KMT is taking a lot of risks, though.

One reason is that its rhetoric sounds a lot like China’s, which some people might not like.

According to Song Tao, a top Chinese official, the two sides had “a choice between war and peace, prosperity and decline” in November. Because of this, the DPP government said that China was using the story to try to sway Taiwanese opinion before the election.

China has also made its choices clear by calling Mr. Lai of the DPP a “separatist” and a “troublemaker.”

Another risk is that it’s not clear if a KMT government would be able to achieve peace and make Beijing happy.

“The KMT thinks it can get Beijing to promise to be careful and keep its word.” “When I think about China’s position on Hong Kong, I’m not as sure that Beijing is ready to commit to anything,” said Ian Chong, a scholar at Carnegie China who does not live there.

“If the KMT wins, Beijing might calm down for a while.” But in the end, they want to take control of Taiwan, either by being economically dependent on it or by using force and threats.

In the long run, this is also a problem for the KMT. Different generations have different ideas about how Taiwan should interact with China. The KMT has always stood for a different view.

“The war and peace narrative is a reflection of a party trying to reconcile two different sides of itself and present a coherent argument to voters,” Dr. Chong said.

The KMT is moving in a certain direction, but people want to go in a different direction as well. They have to choose what kind of party they are: the Chinese Nationalist Party?” he said, referring to the main English name for the Kuomintang.

“Or is it happy to be a Taiwan nationalist party?”

Tovább

Golden Globes 2024: Robert Downey Jr. and Da'Vine Joy Randolph are among the early winners of the award season

alexdriado 2024. 01. 08. 3:15

There are a number of early winners at the Golden Globe Awards, including Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Robert Downey Jr.

It is being held in the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, which is the location of the event.

Downey Jr. was awarded the award for best supporting actor for his performance as Lewis Strauss in the film Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan.

In his acceptance speech, he made a joke about the film's unexpected success at the box office, saying, "A sweeping story about the ethical dilemma of nuclear weapons grosses $1 billion?"

When asked about his performance, the actor stated, "Since the summer, dozens of people have approached me and told me that I was so subtle that I was unrecognizable as Lewis Strauss." First, let's not pretend that this is a complement to the other nominees, should we?

In addition, he drew reference to the modifications that were made to the membership of the Golden Globes in the wake of a scandal involving corruption and a lack of diversity. He thanked me for altering my game and said, "Thank you."

A mom who is going through a tremendous amount of pain after the death of her son was portrayed by Randolph in The Holdovers, which earned her the award for best supporting actress.

"Mary, you have changed my life, and you have made me feel seen in so many different ways," she remarked, referring to the character that she plays in the show. "And I hope I helped you all find your inner Mary, because there is a little bit of her in all of us."

In her address to Alexander Payne, the director of the movie, she expressed her gratitude by saying, "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to play this beautiful and flawed woman."

Anatomy of a Fall, a drama set in a courtroom, was judged to have the finest screenplay. When asked about the process of writing the film, the film's director, Justine Triet, recalled working alongside her partner, Arthur Harari.

"We were in the pandemic," according to her, "and my life partner and I, we spent our days co-writing the screenplay for Anatomy of a Fall, stuck in our apartment - and strangely, nobody died."

Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, who were both recognized for their performances in Beef, as well as Jeremy Allen White, who was recognized for his work in The Bear, are now among the early winners in the television categories.

As a result of her performance as Princess Diana in the television series The Crown, Elizabeth Debicki was awarded the title of best supporting actress in a television series. She expressed her gratitude to the makers of the show "for trusting me with this part."

As a result of his performance in Succession, Matthew Macfadyen was awarded the title of best TV supporting actor. "I just adored every second of playing the human grease stain that is Tom Wambsgans," he said facetiously.

At the ceremony, films such as Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things, Past Lives, and May December are among the other films that have been nominated for awards. In the television categories, Succession, The Crown, and The Last of Us have been nominated for awards.

The primary awardees are:

There are nine nominees. - The Barbie doll
Oppenheimer, number eight
Seventh, the Killers of the Flower Moon Seventh, the Worst Things
5. - Previous Lives
Fourth of May, December, Fourth of Anatomy of a Fall, Fourth of Maestro
Photographs taken on the red carpet at the Golden Globes
A complete list of nominations for the Golden Globes
Watching the films that are expected to win awards this year
At the beginning of the film awards season, which finishes with the Oscars on March 10th, the Globes are the first significant ceremony that takes place.

At the Golden Globes that are being held this year, there are some new categories, one of which is a category that recognizes achievement in the box office.

A number of actresses, including Emma Stone, Sandra Huller, Lily Gladstone, Margot Robbie, Annette Bening, and Carey Mulligan, have been honored with nominations in the two categories of best actress. These awards are divided into two categories: musical or comedy and drama.

Bradley Cooper, Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Wright, Cillian Murphy, Barry Keoghan, and Leonardo DiCaprio are among the actors who have been recognized for their outstanding performances in both award categories.

Please tell me how I can watch the Golden Globes.

In the United States, the Golden Globe Awards will be broadcast on the CBS network but will also be streamed on Paramount+ in conjunction with Showtime.

The event begins at 01:00 GMT and typically lasts between three and four hours for the duration of the ceremony.

The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, also serves as the location for the live telecast.

In this year's nominations, who is it?

The film adaption of life in plastic that Greta Gerwig directed for the big screen, Barbie, is the most nominated film at the Golden Globes, with nine nominations.

The fact remains, however, that three of these nominees belong to the same category. The songs that Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, and Ryan Gosling have contributed to the soundtrack of the movie have resulted in them receiving recognition.

Barbie was released on the same day as Oppenheimer, which grossed $953 million (£755 million) and had eight nominations. Barbie garnered $1.44 billion (£1.14 million) at the global box office, and it was a memorable release.

Over the course of the summer, people were eager to watch both films, despite the fact that Christopher Nolan's biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who invented the nuclear bomb, could not have been more dissimilar in terms of its tone.

The film Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorsese, has received seven nominations. The film tells the story of members of an Osage tribe who were brutally killed in the 1920s as white settlers attempted to migrate into their land, driven by greed for oil.

Moreover, Poor Things has been nominated for seven different categories. Emma Stone plays the role of an infant whose brain has been transplanted into the body of an adult woman in the film version of the novel of the same name directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. The character then embarks on a journey of self-discovery that takes her all over the world.

Past Lives, which is Celine Song's first directorial effort, has received five nominations. It tells the story of a woman who lives in the United States and who, while she was growing up in South Korea, rekindles her friendship with the man who was her best friend since school.

The biopic Maestro, which is about Leonard Bernstein, the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall, and May December, which is about an actress who spends time with the real-life subject of her next movie, a lady who was at the center of a tabloid story, each have four nominations each.

To whom are the Golden Globes being hosted?

Jo Koy, a comedian and actor from the United States, is being the host of this year's ceremony.

Even though he is not a particularly well-known figure in the United Kingdom, the 52-year-old comedian has previously hosted specials for Comedy Central and Netflix. Haunted Mansion and Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens are two of the films in which he has appeared as an actor.

During the course of his career, Koy has performed on a great number of stages all over the world; nonetheless, he has stated in a statement that "this one is going to be extra special."

"I couldn't be more thrilled to be the host... It is at this very moment that I have the opportunity to bring pride to my Filipino family. Mahal Kita (look it up on Google)!

According to what we discovered on Google, the phrase "I love you" is literally translated as "Mahal Kita" in Filipino.

A number of celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, Matt Damon, Jared Leto, Dua Lipa, Ben Affleck, Daniel Kaluuya, Angela Bassett, and Florence Pugh, will be presenting their respective categories during the evening.

Just what are the new classifications?

There are eight films that have been nominated for the new cinematic and box office achievement category. These films will be the highest-earning, most praised, or most seen films of the year.

This is not only an attempt to ensure that box office smashes such as Barbie and Oppenheimer get recognized, but it is also a means for the Globes to accommodate a wider variety of films and invite a greater number of celebrities to attend the ceremony.

Taylor Swift's concert film, titled "The Eras Tour," has been nominated for an award. Notable nominations have been given to the most recent installments of the John Wick, Mission: Impossible, and Guardians of the Galaxy film franchises, which are examples of mainstream films that are not typically recognized during the awards season.

"Best stand-up comedian on television" is the other new category that has been released. Ricky Gervais, Trevor Noah, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, and Wanda Sykes are the individuals who have been nominated for this award.

Is there still controversy around the Globes?
As a result of suspicions of corruption and a lack of diversity within its voting group, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organization that was responsible for the Golden Globes, sparked controversy in the year 2021.

Due to the fact that the Globes were getting their house in order, the ceremony for 2022 was significantly reduced in size. Over the course of the subsequent three years, the number of members on the voting body increased from approximately 90 to 300, and the composition of the body has become substantially more diversified.

As a result of the issue, the HFPA was broken up, and Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions were given ownership of the event.

Despite the fact that there were still questions around whether or not the Globes would be permitted back into the Hollywood fold, almost all of the stars returned to the ceremony in 2023, despite the fact that a rumored boycott did not materialize.

But increasing the number of members brought with it its own set of challenges; for example, after learning that they would not be invited to this year's event, some members threatened to take their vote away from the organization.

What makes the Golden Globes such an important award?

When compared to many of the other ceremonies that take place throughout the film awards season, the Golden Globes are typically considered to be a more humorous event.

Celebrity attendees are typically in a good mood, having recently returned from their Christmas break, and are eager to socialize over a few drinks when the event takes place during the first week of January of each year.

The Bafta Film Awards and the Academy Awards, on the other hand, are far more formal occasions, and the prizes that are awarded have a higher level of prestige.

A victory at the Golden Globes, on the other hand, may lend a substantial amount of momentum to an awards campaign. This is because the winners are given the opportunity to deliver an eloquent acceptance speech on television during a time when Oscar voters are contemplating their own nominations.

A nomination for a Golden Globe is significantly more likely than a nomination for an Academy Award would be. The total number of slots available in the film acting categories at the Academy Awards is twenty, whereas the number of slots available at the Globes is thirty-six.

Tovább

Israel Gaza war: UN says no let-up in Israeli air strikes in Gaza

alexdriado 2023. 12. 26. 17:33

During a visit to a hospital that is trying to treat the injured, a United Nations official stated to the BBC that there is no letup in the Israeli air attacks that are taking place in Gaza.

"Absolute carnage" was what Gemma Connell, a representative of the United Nations' Ocha humanitarian agency, described what she witnessed on Monday at the Al-Aqsa hospital located in the central region of Gaza.

It was "absolutely overloaded" at the hospital, she claimed, which meant that a great number of badly injured patients could not receive treatment.

At an earlier time, the Prime Minister of Israel made a commitment to step up the campaign against Hamas.

Benjamin Netanyahu stated that he had traveled to Gaza on Monday morning and that Israel's military campaign in the region was "not even close to being over."

His remarks come just a few days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken of the United States of America said that Israel should minimize the severity of its attacks.

The United States Department of Defense (Pentagon) has reported that the United States Armed Forces have taken out air strikes in Iraq against "Iranian-sponsored militias" in response to an attack on the Irbil air base, which resulted in the injuries of three United States military personnel, one of whom was in serious condition.

Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, stated that the strikes had targeted three facilities that were utilized by the Kataeb Hezbollah group and its affiliates, which is supported by Iran.

He stated that there had been a number of attacks of militias on US sites in both Iraq and Syria, and he emphasized that the United States would not hesitate to protect its people and infrastructure in the event of any more attacks.

Following Israel's military assault in Gaza, there has been an increase in the level of activities carried out by Kataeb Hezbollah and other armed militias in the region.

During an interview with the BBC World Service's Newshour program, Tom White, the director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), stated that there were approximately 150,000 individuals in central Gaza who had been given orders to evacuate by the Israeli military.

Ms. Connell, who was also interviewed by the Newshour, stated that "what I saw at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in [the city of] Deir al-Balah was absolute carnage."

According to her, there were a great number of casualties at that location who had "extremely severe wounds but [who] cannot be treated because there are so many people in front of them in the line for surgery, and the hospital is absolutely overloaded."

She claimed, "And some of those that I saw were people who were hit in the strike yesterday [Sunday]," in reference to an attack that was reportedly carried out on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, which is located in the central region of Gaza.

According to the health ministry, which is managed by Hamas, the Israeli strike resulted in the deaths of at least seventy persons.

There were "reports of an incident in the Maghazi camp," according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which they stated they had received. The statement stated that "despite the challenges posed by Hamas terrorists operating within civilian areas in Gaza, the IDF is committed to international law including taking feasible steps to minimize harm to civilians" .

Ms. Connell also mentioned that while she was in Al-Aqsa, "there were new air strikes hitting areas around the hospital in the middle area and new casualties being brought in." This occurred while she was there.

"Tragically I saw a nine-year-old boy with a devastating head injury who passed away," according to her.

"When I say that there were strikes again today and casualties arriving, some of those strikes were in areas that people have been told to evacuate to, which, again goes back to the refrain that, I think, I am so sick of saying: that there is no safe place in Gaza," added the spokesperson.

"And even when people are told to evacuate the places that they are fleeing to are not safe."

After Hamas conducted a murderous attack on towns within Israel on October 7, the war broke out. The offensive resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people, the most of whom were civilians, and the capture of approximately 240 hostages. According to Israel, 132 people are still being held.

On Monday, the health ministry of Gaza, which is governed by Hamas, said that about 20,674 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli bombardments since January. Children and women are thought to make up the majority of those who have passed away.

The media in Israel and the Arab world have reported that Egypt has put out a proposal for a ceasefire between the two parties.

Reports indicate that the proposal would involve the gradual release of all Israeli captives as well as an undetermined number of Palestinian detainees who are currently being held in Israeli jails over the course of a month and a half, culminating with the cessation of Israel's offensive.

A prior agreement for a temporary cease-fire that Qatar mediated resulted in the release of dozens of hostages from Gaza in exchange for release of Palestinian inmates.

Despite the growing number of requests for a ceasefire, Israel and Hamas have both resisted at this point.

Tovább

Palestinians who have been released claim they were abused in Israeli jails

alexdriado 2023. 12. 01. 15:10

Palestinian inmates released from Israeli jails claim that guards abused them and subjected them to collective punishment in the weeks following the Hamas strikes on Israel on October 7.

They've told of being struck with sticks, having muzzled dogs set on them, and having their clothes, food, and blankets taken away.

One female detainee claimed she was threatened with rape and that officers tear-gassed her inside the cells twice.

The bustlingnews.com interviewed with six people in all, all of whom claimed to have been beaten before being released from jail.

According to the Palestinian detainees Society, some guards are accused of urinating on restrained detainees. In the last seven weeks, six inmates have perished in Israeli detention.

Israel claims that all of its detainees are held in accordance with the law.

Mohammed Nazzal, eighteen, was among those released by Israel this week in exchange for Israeli women and children held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

He had been incarcerated in Nafha Prison without charge since August and claims he has no idea why he was arrested.

Mohammed invited me to his home in the village of Qabatiya near Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank.

The smoke from a dozen cigarettes filled the family reception room at the top of the ancient house, and a cousin circled the visitors with a flask of coffee and a tall tower of miniature paper cups.

Mohammed sat between rows of male relatives, both his hands thickly wrapped and held stiffly in front of him like a boxer, the tips of his thumbs poking out.

He claims that Israeli prison officers came into his cell ten days ago with a microphone and speaker, attempting to incite the convicts by clapping and chanting their names.

"When they saw we weren't reacting," he goes on to add, "they started to beat us."

"They arranged us so that the elderly were in the back and the young were in front." They kidnapped me and began beating me. They were attempting to break my legs and hands while I was protecting my head."

The family handed us medical records and X-rays from Ramallah-based Palestinian doctors who evaluated Mohammed after his release on Monday.

We showed the X-ray images to two doctors in the UK, who confirmed that both hands had fractures. Mohammed was not surprised.

"In the beginning, I was in a lot of pain," he admits. "After a while, I realized they were broken and stopped using them." I only used them when I had to go to the bathroom."

He claims that other prisoners assisted him in eating, drinking, and using the restroom, and that he did not seek medical attention from the guards out of fear of being beaten again.

The Israel Prison Service has contested Mohammed's statement, claiming that he was evaluated by a doctor before leaving prison and that no medical problems were discovered.

The jail service also published a video of the boy leaving the facility and boarding a Red Cross bus prior to his release, claiming that it demonstrates his claims are untrue.

The teen's hands are unbandaged and appear to be dangling by his sides in the video, including as he climbs into the bus, but are out of view for the majority of the time.

Mohammed told us that he had his first medical treatment on that Red Cross vehicle.

A medical assessment from a hospital in Ramallah on the day he returned home suggested that if his fractures did not heal on their own, a plate could have to be inserted.

We requested that the Red Cross authenticate Mohammed's story. "We speak directly with the detaining authorities if we have any concerns about the medical condition of detainees," they stated in a statement. We do not discuss individual cases publicly because of this dialogue."

According to Mohammed, the behavior of guards inside Israeli jails changed after the Hamas attacks on October 7.

He claims guards kicked them and struck them with sticks, and he recounts one guard stepping on his face.

"They came in with their dogs," he says further. "They let the dogs attack us and then they started beating us."

"They took our mattresses, clothes, pillows, and food and threw it on the floor." "Everyone was terrified."

He shows me the bruises on his back and shoulder that he claims were caused by the beatings.

"The dog attacking me wore a muzzle with very sharp edges - his muzzle and claws left marks all over my body," he says.

Beatings like these occurred twice at Megiddo Prison, he said, and numerous times at Nafha Prison.

Other Palestinian detainees we spoke with described a similar shift inside Israel's jails following the Hamas strikes, interpreting it as "revenge" targeting Palestinian prisoners for Hamas' activities.

Abdullah al-Zaghary, the head of the Palestinian detainees Society, told us that numerous detainees had observed cellmates being viciously assaulted on their faces and bodies, and that he had heard reports of guards peeing on bound prisoners.

We requested a response from the Israel Prison Service to these charges. They said that all detainees were detained in accordance with the law and had all of the basic legal rights.

"We are not aware of the claims you have described," read the statement. "Nonetheless, prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined by official authorities."

Lama Khater, who was released from prison earlier this week, claimed in a social media video that an intelligence officer "explicitly threatened her with rape" shortly after her detention in late October.

"I was handcuffed and blindfolded," she said in the footage to an interviewer. "They threatened me with rape... It was obvious that the purpose was to scare me."

Israel said that her lawyer made these assertions, which the prisoner disputed. According to the jail service, an inciting complaint had been filed.

However, Lama Khater told us over the phone that women detainees, including herself, had been threatened with rape and that tear gas had been used against them in their Damon Prison dormitory.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, the number of Palestinians killed in captivity has increased dramatically after the 7 October attacks, with six persons dying in custody since that day.

Israel did not directly respond to our inquiry, but stated that four detainees had died on four different dates in the previous weeks, and that the prison service had no information of the causes of death.

Mohammed Nazzal of Qabatiya village says his hands still hurt, especially at night.

His brother Mutaz informed me that the adolescent he knew had not been released from jail.

"This is not the Mohammed we know," he added. "He was brave, brave. Now his heart is wounded and terrified."

He claimed that the Israeli army had carried out an operation in the nearby city of Jenin the night before: "You could see how scared he was."

Tovább

«‹

3 4 5 678

›»

reblog