(Reuters) - Once muscular and strong, Palestinian bodybuilder Moazaz Obaiyat’s nine-month spell in Israeli custody left him unable to walk unaided upon his release in July. Then, in an October pre-dawn raid on his home, soldiers detained him again.

Before being re-arrested, the 37-year-old father of five was diagnosed with severe PTSD by Bethlehem Psychiatric Hospital, related to his time at Israel's remote Ktz'iot prison, according to medical notes seen by Reuters from the hospital, a public clinic in the occupied West Bank.

The notes said Obaiyat was subjected to "physical and psychological violence and torture" in prison and described symptoms including severe anxiety, withdrawal from his family and avoidance of discussion of traumatic events and current affairs.

Alleged abuses and psychological harm to Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons and camps are in renewed focus amid stepped-up efforts in December by international mediators to secure a ceasefire that could see the release of thousands of inmates detained during the Gaza war and before, in return for Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza.

In the event of the release of detainees in any future deal, many “will require long-term medical care to recover from the physical and psychological abuse they have endured,” said Qadoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, a government body in the West Bank. Fares said he was aware of Obaiyat’s case.

For this story, Reuters spoke to four Palestinian men detained by Israel since the war’s outbreak after the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. All were held for months, accused of affiliating with an illegal organisation, and released without being formally charged or convicted of any crime.

All described lasting psychological scars they attributed to abuses including beatings, sleep and food deprivation and prolonged restraint in stress positions during their time inside. Reuters could not independently verify the conditions in which they were held.

Their accounts are consistent with multiple investigations by human rights groups that reported grave abuses of Palestinians in Israeli detention.