At least 160 healthcare workers, including more than 20 doctors, from Gaza, are reportedly still held in Israeli detention facilities, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has expressed grave concerns about their wellbeing and safety.

Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical NGO, confirmed that 162 medical staff, among them some of Gaza’s most senior physicians, remain in Israeli detention, with a further 24 missing after being taken from hospitals during the conflict.

Muath Alser, the director of HWW, asserted that the detention of a large number of doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other healthcare workers from Gaza contravenes international law and exacerbates the suffering of civilians by depriving them of medical expertise and care.

The WHO stated that it had verified that 297 healthcare workers from Gaza have been detained by the Israeli military since the war commenced, without providing updated information on releases or those still detained. HWW, however, indicates that its data shows the number is slightly higher, confirming that 339 healthcare workers from Gaza have been detained by the Israeli military.

The WHO expressed deep concern about the wellbeing and safety of Palestinian health workers in Israeli detention, following reports that detainees in Israeli facilities face routine violence and mistreatment. A lawyer representing Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital, whose detention sparked international condemnation, recently visited him in Ofer Prison and reported that Dr. Safiya had been tortured, beaten, and denied medical treatment.

The Guardian and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) have also gathered detailed testimony from several senior doctors who claim they were wrongfully taken from hospitals, ambulances, and checkpoints in Gaza, transferred into Israeli-run prison facilities, and subjected to prolonged torture, beatings, starvation, and inhumane conditions before being released without charge.

Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of al-Shifa hospital, who was detained for seven months in Israeli prisons before being released without charge, recounted the brutality, including clubbing, being beaten with rifle butts and attacked by dogs, lack of food, hygiene, and basic facilities, and witnessing deaths in detention. He described being beaten so severely that he couldn’t use his legs or walk, and that no day passed without torture.

In response to these allegations, the WHO’s Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, dismissed the ongoing detention of medical personnel by Israel and declared concern for their welfare. The UN’s human rights office (UNOCH) called for the immediate release of arbitrarily-held medical staff and demanded an end to practices amounting to enforced disappearances, torture, and ill-treatment. UNOCH previously stated that the detention of numerous healthcare workers by the Israeli military has contributed to the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system.

Under the Geneva Conventions, which govern the conduct of warring parties, doctors and healthcare facilities must be protected, not attacked, and allowed to continue providing medical care. Tedros emphasized that health workers, their facilities, and patients must never be targeted and, under international humanitarian law, should be actively protected.

Two of Gaza’s most senior doctors, Dr. Iyad al-Rantisi, a consultant obstetrician and gynecologist, and Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, head of the orthopedic department at al-Shifa hospital, are known to have died in detention.

Israel has defended its actions against Gaza’s healthcare system, alleging that hospitals were used by Hamas as military command centers and that detained healthcare workers were suspected of involvement. However, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, stated that Israel has failed to substantiate these claims.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) contended that it operates within international law, aiming to restore security, free hostages, and achieve the objectives of the war. It claims to provide detainees with essentials like clothing, food, and medical care and conducts investigations into any deaths in detention. However, doctors’ accounts and other former Palestinian detainees describe systemic abuse and torture.

Recently, an Israeli soldier was sentenced to seven months in prison for the abuse of detainees, marking the first conviction of its kind in Israel.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/25/more-than-160-gazan-medics-held-in-israeli-prisons-amid-reports-of-torture