Warning: Story contains graphic, disturbing photos below.
Palestinian health care workers who were arbitrarily captured by the Israeli military are revealing the horrifying, and in some cases deadly, abuse and torture they faced at the hands of soldiers in detention ― further deteriorating Gaza’s health care system that’s already crumbling under Israel’s nearly yearlong siege.
A report published Monday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) included testimony from doctors, nurses and paramedics who said they faced humiliation, beatings, forced stress positions, prolonged cuffing, blindfolding and denial of medical care while in Israeli custody. These specific health care workers, now released, also described torture that included rape and sexual abuse by Israeli forces, and inhumane living conditions for the general prison population. Their testimonies are consistent with other credible reports about Israel’s inhumane treatment of detainees.
“The Israeli government’s mistreatment of Palestinian health care workers has continued in the shadows and needs to immediately stop,” Balkees Jarrah, HRW’s acting Middle East director, said in a statement earlier this week. “The torture and other ill-treatment of doctors, nurses and paramedics should be thoroughly investigated and appropriately punished, including by the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
Israeli officials have repeatedly denied inhumane treatment of detainees, maintaining that the prisoners are members of Hamas. In rare cases, the military launches an investigation into itself or into individual soldiers, which historically has not resulted in accountability.
Israel’s targeting of Palestinian health care workers has been occurring for years, but shot up after soldiers launched its military offensive in Gaza as a response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that killed about 1,200 and took hundreds hostage, the latter of which about 100 remain in captivity. The Israeli military has since killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza and decimated the strip while torturing its captives in shadowy military bases ― actions that the international community has largely described as genocidal.
The Degradation In Israel’s Arrests Of Health Care Workers
Dr. Isam Abu Ajwa restarts his work at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital a few days after the Palestinian surgeon was released from prison in Deir al-Balah, where Israeli forces detained him on Oct. 7, 2023, for 200 days.
Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images
Between March and June of this year, HRW interviewed eight Palestinian health care workers in Gaza who were taken captive by Israeli forces between November and December of last year and detained without charge for some time between seven days and five months. The organization said it also spoke with seven people who witnessed Israeli forces arrest health care workers trying to do their job.
“We’re just health care workers. … We’re not doing anything out of the ordinary,” Dr. Majed Jaber, who is currently based in the al-Mawasi area while volunteering at Emirati Hospital, said on a Wednesday call with reporters and other Gaza health care workers.
All the workers who testified in the report said Israeli soldiers never informed them of why they were being detained,