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| EPISODE 1

Interrupted Call

Omar tells us, that during his first days in detention, he repeatedly told prisoners he had been traveling for ten days and hadn’t followed the news, a statement that became a recurring disappointment in every cell he entered. He explains how the circulation of news inside prison resembled an “interrupted call” shaped by fear, survival, and the hunger for hope.
19 November 2025
series [{"user_id":"3676","role":"Editorial support"},{"user_id":"1473","role":"Sound design"},{"user_id":"1408","role":"Graphic arts"}] https://inkyfada.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Podcast-Assir-Episode-01-تلفون-مقطوع.mp3 Podcast : Assir - Episode 01 : “Appel Interrompu” | بودكاست: "أسير" - الحلقة 01 : “تلفون مقطوع Episode 01 : “Appel Interrompu” | الحلقة 01 : “تلفون مقطوع
يروي عمر أنّه دخل أيّامه الأولى في السجن بعد سفر لعشرة أيّام لم يتابع فيه الأخبار. هذه الجملة مثلت خيبة أمل متكرّرة في كلّ زنزانة دخلها، بينما كان الأسرى يترقّبون منه أيّ خبر عن العالم الخارجي. تحولت في الأسر أبسط قصص رحلته في كينيا إلى مادّة للتهكّم وسط عزلة قاسية، وصار تبادل الأخبار بين الأسرى أشبه بلعبة “تلفون مقطوع” تحكمها الحاجة للبقاء… وللأمل.

Oma tells us, that during his first days in detention, he repeatedly told prisoners he had been traveling for ten days and hadn’t followed the news, a statement that became a recurring disappointment in every cell he entered. He explains how the circulation of news inside prison resembled an “interrupted call” shaped by fear, survival, and the hunger for hope.

Omar raconte ses premiers jours en détention, il répétait qu’il avait passé dix jours en voyage sans suivre l’actualité. Cette phrase est  devenue, à chaque cellule, une source de déception pour les prisonniers en quête de nouvelles. Il explique comment la circulation de l’information parmi les détenus ressemblait à un jeu de “téléphone arabe” façonné par la peur, la survie et le besoin d’espoir.
93361
Created by
Omar al Khatib
Editorial support
Manel Lassoued
Sound design
Oussema Gaidi
Graphic arts
Hathemi Smedhi

Omar explains that he arrived at Ktzi'ot prison after ten days in Kenya with no access to news, only to find prisoners desperate for any information from the outside. He recounts how stories from his trip sparked irony within a context of hunger, fear, and ongoing genocide.

Before October 7th, prisoners had limited windows to the world: restricted TV channels, radios, newspapers, and at times smuggled phones. All of these were confiscated during the first week of the war, plunging prisoners into complete isolation used as punishment and psychological pressure.

According to his account, news circulated through three main channels: monitored lawyer visits, newly arrived detainees, or a few stolen seconds during virtual court sessions. Fear, hunger, and political affiliations distorted every piece of information, and at times, hopeful versions of news were intentionally shared to keep long-term prisoners emotionally afloat.

Assir

Two years after October 7, 2023, Omar Al-Khatib, the Jerusalemite researcher and freed Palestinian detainee, returns to recount his sixteen-month experience in Israeli prisons.Through a five-episode documentary series, Omar documents the details of life behind bars, in conditions marked by hunger, illness, and isolation, with a profound sense of being cut off from the outside world.Between individual memory and collective experience, he traces the transformations experienced by Palestinian prisoners since the outbreak of the war on Gaza, in a time when the body and resistance have become two sides of the same struggle.

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ABOUT

Inkyfada Podcast is the first platform entirely dedicated to original Tunisian podcasts, and was conceived by Inkyfada media in collaboration with the in-house research and development laboratory, InkyLab.
Inkyfada joined the global podcast boom in 2017, when the team produced the first Tunisian audio documentary, diving deep into the belly of the El Kamour struggle taking place in the desert.
Since then, Inkyfada Podcast has produced a wide variety of documentaries, investigations, and podcast series, as well as articles accompanied by music; covering a multitude of contemporary issues in order to offer an immersive and alternative podcast experience.
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These podcasts differ from traditional radiophonic content in that the applied production and editing process is more akin to cinematographic techniques, in addition to being web-based, downloadable and accessible on demand.
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