Asma Shatat, a 42-year-old Islamic studies teacher from Gaza, has finally been reunited with her three children after enduring a year of captivity in Israeli prisons. Arrested alongside her husband during the 2024 war, Shatat faced unimaginable horrors. On the night of March 30, 2024, Israeli forces raided their tent, brutally detaining her in front of her children, aged 13, 11, and 9. “They asked me, ‘Who do you want us to kill first?’” she recalls. “I told them, ‘Kill me, but spare my children.’”  

During her imprisonment, Shatat endured relentless physical and psychological torture. Held in solitary confinement in a freezing cell, she was accused of being an “illegal fighter” and subjected to false claims that her children had been killed. “They showed me AI-generated images of our bombed home,” she says. Transferred to Damon Prison, she faced further abuse, including beatings, starvation, and the destruction of personal items. During the first anniversary of the October 7 events, riot units stormed the cells, dragging the women outside, blindfolded and handcuffed, while police dogs and tear gas were used against them.  

Despite the suffering, Shatat found strength in faith and solidarity. She memorized parts of the Quran, learned Hebrew, and even sewed with paper clips after needles were confiscated. “We created life from nothing,” she says. Her darkest moments were lightened by small mercies. One rainy night, she heard fellow prisoners shout, “Asma, your children are alive! They’re memorizing the Quran!” Shatat fell to her knees in gratitude, her faith renewed.  

Finally freed on February 27, 2025, as part of a prisoner exchange deal, Shatat embraced her children in an emotional reunion. “It felt like being born again,” she says. Yet, her joy remains incomplete as her husband, Arafat, remains in captivity. “I won’t truly be free until he is home with us.” Shatat’s story is a testament to the resilience of Palestinian mothers and the enduring hope for freedom and justice.