A new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) exposes shocking treatment of Palestinian healthcare workers who have been detained amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza. According to the report released on Monday, healthcare professionals have been taken from their medical facilities, sent to detention centers in Israel, and subjected to severe mistreatment, including torture.
The report details a range of atrocities, including threats of rape and sexual abuse, denial of medical treatment, and poor conditions in detention that healthcare workers have suffered since the escalation of conflict began in October. Over 40,000 Palestinians have been reported killed in the conflict.
Balkees Jarrah, acting director for the Middle East at HRW, has called for an immediate halt and thorough investigation into the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinian healthcare workers. “The torture and mistreatment of doctors, nurses, and paramedics should be thoroughly investigated and appropriately punished, including by the International Criminal Court (ICC),” Jarrah stated in a release.
The report indicates that eight released healthcare workers and seven witnesses have recounted mistreatment in Israeli prisons. These include humiliation, beatings, forced stress positions, prolonged handcuffing, and blindfolding. One paramedic, Walid Khalili, shared a harrowing experience at the military prison Sde Teiman, where he witnessed at least one other prisoner hanging from the ceiling by handcuff chains. Khalili himself was chained and subjected to electric shocks during his detention. “It was so degrading that it was incomprehensible. I helped people as a paramedic, and I never expected anything like this,” he said.
Another paramedic who was detained at al-Naqab prison reported witnessing a man bleed and recounting being raped by Israeli soldiers. “Three soldiers took turns raping him with an M16 rifle,” the paramedic was quoted in the report.
According to HRW, the detained healthcare workers were held without charge for periods ranging from seven days to five months. The military detained them between November and December and pressured them to confess connections to Hamas under threats of unimaginable detention, rape, and murder of their families in Gaza. None of them were given any information regarding the reasons for their detention or were charged with a crime.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other human rights organizations have also documented torture and abuse of Palestinians in Israeli custody. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 310 Palestinian healthcare workers have been detained since October 7.
This ongoing mistreatment and detention of healthcare personnel have worsened the already critical health situation in Gaza, where medical workers struggle to maintain the healthcare system despite destroyed facilities and a lack of supplies and fuel. Many medical personnel risk their lives to assist those injured by Israeli airstrikes, yet they themselves have become targets for attacks from Israeli forces.