The release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees offers a rare glimpse into the immediate health impacts of incarceration in Israel.

Some of those released on Monday are suffering from a range of health problems they developed during years in Israeli detention, doctors and freed prisoners in the occupied West Bank told The Associated Press.

Israel maintains that it follows international and domestic legal standards for the treatment of prisoners and that any violations by prison personnel are investigated.

"My shoulder, they beat me on it (the shoulder), I have a tear in my shoulder. For eight months, I wasn’t given a single pill," to relieve the pain, said Kamal Abu Shanab, 51, who was released after more than 18 years behind bars.

A military court in 2007 convicted him of "military training, voluntary manslaughter and membership in an unrecognized organization," according to Israel’s list of exchanged prisoners.

The Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah received 14 men released on Monday as part of the exchange and discharged all but two.

Doctors examining the men said their conditions suggested they had been beaten.

"It indicates that these patients were subjected to severe beatings, reflecting the extent of the violence... Breaks in the rib cage indicate a strong blow," said Imad al-Shami, a resident doctor at the hospital’s emergency room.

The AP could not independently verify the claims.

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is in charge of prisons, has repeatedly boasted of making prison conditions for Palestinians as harsh as possible while meeting the letter of the law.

Palestinians who were freed in past exchanges have reported frequent beatings, insufficient food and deprivation of medical care in Israeli prisons.

A 2024 U.N. report said that since Oct. 7, 2023, thousands of Palestinians have been held arbitrarily and incommunicado by Israel, often shackled, blindfolded, deprived of food, water, sleep and medical care and subjected to torture or degrading treatment.

"This is part of systematic policy. It's a widespread practice. It's not against one person, two persons,” said Shawan Jabarin, the general director of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq.

Crowds greeted the freed prisoners in Beitunia in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Monday.

In Beitunia, they were given traditional keffiyeh scarves as a show of nationalist pride.

Some were lifted onto people’s shoulders. Others sank into chairs, exhausted.

Despite being overwhelmed with joy at seeing imprisoned relatives for the first time in years, some family members were shocked at the sight of the freed men.

After the release of the last living hostages and Palestinian prisoners and detainees, the tenuous ceasefire in Gaza was holding Tuesday while questions remain over other key parts of a U.S. plan for the region.

The long list of uncertainties includes when Hamas will return to Israel the bodies of the 24 hostages believed to be dead in Gaza, and Israel’s insistence that a weakened Hamas disarm.

The future governance of Gaza is also unclear.

AP video by Imad Isseid and Amer Abdeen