Palestinian Health Workers Describe Torture, Abuse in Israeli Detention

Hundreds of Palestinian health workers have been imprisoned by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) since October 7, 2023. While many remain in camps and prisons, those who have been released continue to come forward with horrifying accounts of abuse and torture. A recent report published by Human Rights Watch titled: “Israel: Palestinian Healthcare Workers Tortured” presents disturbing testimonies from healthcare workers who were detained by Israel.

Human Rights Watch and Healthcare Workers Watch – Palestine collected testimonies from health workers, including nurses, paramedics, and doctors, who all recount being stripped and kept in the cold, tied up, and denied food and water. The health workers were blindfolded and handcuffed for weeks on end, along with other prisoners.

“Every minute we were beaten […] They used the front of their boots, which had a metal tip, then their weapons,” said surgeon Eyad Abed, who was taken prisoner during the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in November last year. “They had lighters: one soldier tried to burn me but burned the person next to me.”

Palestinian Medical Relief Society paramedic Walid Khalili described how he was suspended by a chain from the ceiling while Israeli soldiers exposed him to electric shocks and threw cold water at him in an attempt to force a confession that he was a supporter of Hamas. “With every question, I was electro-shocked to wake me up. He [the interrogator] told me confess and we will stop torturing you,” Khalili said.

The paramedic also encountered prisoners who had been sexually abused. One of them, who was placed together with Khalili in detention, told him he had been raped by three soldiers using an M16 rifle. When the soldiers brought him in, Khalili said, the man was “bleeding from his bottom.”

Other health workers also encountered victims of sexual abuse and reported that threats of rape are a common strategy used by Israeli interrogators. It is not only the prisoners who are directly threatened: soldiers also threaten to kidnap, humiliate, and rape their family members, leaving a deep impact on the prisoners’ mental health.

Even when the health workers could not be linked to Hamas or coerced into confessing, the IOF continued to imprison them, the report states. In some cases, they were appointed as prisoner functionaries, serving as intermediaries between the prisoners and their captors. In this role, they helped with food distribution and toilet use and were expected to provide basic medical care—despite not being given any medical supplies or allowed to fully use their medical skills.

Additionally, those acting as prisoner functionaries were forced to assist in transferring prisoners from holding areas to interrogation. “I used to cry when transferring them because I’m the one bringing them to this torture,” said Khader Abu Nada, a nurse from northern Gaza.

The inability to help other prisoners and the constant witnessing of their suffering further exacerbated the health workers’ trauma. Although they have been released, the health workers continue to struggle with the mental and physical effects of their imprisonment. All have lost significant weight due to the poor quality and inadequate quantity of food provided. Some are struggling with being cut off from their families in the north of the Strip, and others face physical consequences from stress positions they were forced into and the tightness of the cuffs.

“I still feel pain in my hands. My hands are weak, and I have no strength to hold or carry anything. There’s also still pain from my shoulders all the way to my fingertips. I have severe neck pain from the pressure on my head when they kept pushing our heads down,” Abu Nada said.

People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and to subscribe to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.