[News] Tortured and humiliated: 'Israel’s' abduction of 160 Gaza medics

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.almayadeen.net
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/tortured-and-humiliated---israel-s--abduction-of-160-gaza-me>
Tortured and humiliated: 'Israel’s' abduction of 160 Gaza medics
Al Mayadeen English
February 25, 2025
------------------------------

Senior doctors report enduring months of physical abuse as the UN urges the
release of those still in detention.
[image: 78f37357-c43d-48f2-a5df-d692a88254c1.jpeg]

   - Leaked images of the Israeli torture camp Sde Teiman in the al-Naqab
   desert, where the Israelis perpetrate grave crimes against Palestinians
   abducted from Gaza. (*CNN*)

At least 160 healthcare workers from Gaza, including over 20 doctors,
remain in Israeli detention, as the World Health Organization (WHO)
voiced grave
concerns
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/torture--sexual-abuse-of-palestinian-detainees--war-crimes>
over their safety and well-being.

Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical NGO, reported that
162 medical staff are still being held, among them some of Gaza’s most
senior physicians, while another 24 remain missing after being abducted
from hospitals during the war.

Muath Alser, HWW’s director, condemned the mass detention of doctors,
nurses, paramedics, and other medical personnel as a violation of
international law, emphasizing that it exacerbates civilian suffering by
depriving them of critical medical care.

"Israel’s targeting of the healthcare workforce in this manner is having a
devastating impact on the provision of healthcare to Palestinians, with
extensive suffering, countless preventable deaths, and the effective
eradication of whole medical specialties," Alser said as quoted by *The
Guardian*.
Medics suffer from violence and mistreatment

The WHO has confirmed that 297 healthcare workers from Gaza have been
detained since the Israeli war began but lacks updated data on how many
remain in custody. HWW, however, claims the actual number is higher,
stating that 339 Gazan healthcare workers have been taken into Israeli
custody.

The WHO expressed deep concern over the treatment of Palestinian medical
personnel following reports that Palestinians in Israeli prison facilities
have been subjected to systemic violence and mistreatment.

A lawyer representing Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--prevents-dr--hussam-abu-safiya-from-meeting-with-la>,
director of Kamal Adwan Hospital—whose detention in December sparked global
condemnation—recently visited him in the notorious Ofer Prison in Ramallah.
According to the lawyer, Abu Safiya reported being tortured, beaten, and
denied medical care.

*The Guardian*, alongside the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism
(ARIJ), has collected testimony from seven senior doctors who described
being forcibly taken from hospitals, ambulances, and checkpoints in Gaza,
transferred to Israeli prisons, and subjected to months of abuse, including
beatings, starvation, and inhumane treatment, before ultimately being
released without charge.

Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia, director of al-Shifa Hospital, who was held in
Israeli custody for seven months, told *The Guardian, *"Frankly, no matter
how much I talk about what I experienced in detention, it is only a
fraction of what truly happened."

"I am talking about clubbing, being beaten with rifle butts, and being
attacked by dogs. There was little to no food, no personal hygiene, no soap
inside the cells, no water, no toilet, no toilet paper … I saw people who
were dying there … I was beaten so badly I couldn’t use my legs or walk. No
day passes without torture."
WHO warns of deteriorating conditions

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus condemned the ongoing
detention of medical personnel, warning of their deteriorating conditions.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has also
called for the immediate release of arbitrarily detained medical workers
and demanded an end to what it described as "enforced disappearances,
torture, and other ill-treatment."

OHCHR has previously stated that the large-scale detention of healthcare
workers by Israeli forces has significantly contributed to the collapse of
Gaza’s medical system. "Those responsible for crimes under international
law must be held to account," said Ajith Sunghay, head of the OHCHR office
for the occupied Palestinian territory.

Under the Geneva Conventions, medical personnel are to be protected during
wars and allowed to provide care to those in need without being targeted.

"Health workers, facilities they work in, and patients they care for … must
never be targets. In fact, under international humanitarian law, they
should be actively protected," said Tedros.

Two of Gaza’s most senior doctors—Dr. Iyad al-Rantisi
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel--tortures-palestinian-doctor-of-kamal-adwan-hospital>,
a consultant obstetrician and gynecologist at Kamal Adwan Hospital, and Dr.
Adnan al-Bursh
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gaza-al-shifa-doctor-tortured-to-death-by-israeli-forces>,
head of orthopedics at al-Shifa Hospital—have been killed in Israeli
detention.

The testimonies of detained doctors align with broader accounts from former
Palestinian detainees, many of whom have described systemic abuse and
torture in Israeli custody.

Earlier this month, an Israeli soldier was sentenced to seven months in
prison for abusing detainees—the first conviction of its kind in "Israel".

*Read next: IOF reservists indicted for torturing Palestinian in Sde Teiman
<https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/iof-reservists-indicted-for-torturing-palestinian-in-sde-tei>*
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