17 December 2024
The BMJ has published this account of the appalling fate of Adnan Al-Bursh, a prominent surgeon who trained at King’s College Hospital London, after being taken prisoner by Israeli forces in Gaza. Al-Bursh is only one of many Palestinian medical personnel and healthcare workers who have been seized and tortured or killed by Israeli forces. Israel has not only destroyed practically all medical facilities in Gaza, it has also systematically eliminated most of their personnel.
Palestinian surgeon was assaulted before dying in Israeli detention, reports say
BMJ 2024; 387 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q2672 (Published 28 November 2024)Cite this as: BMJ 2024;387:q267
Elisabeth Mahase
The Israeli human rights organisation HaMoked has claimed it has evidence that the prominent Palestinian orthopaedic surgeon Adnan Al-Bursh was beaten and assaulted before his death in Israeli detention in April.
In May the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed that Al-Bursh, who trained at King’s College London and was the head of orthopaedic medicine at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, had died in prison, four months after being detained while working at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza. The IDF did not provide details of the cause of death, although Al-Bursh’s family said at the time that they believed he was tortured to death.1
HaMoked has now said it has a deposition from a fellow prisoner, who previously knew Al-Bursh in Gaza, detailing the final moments leading up to the surgeon’s death. The deposition, seen by Sky News, stated that Al-Bursh arrived at Section 23 in Ofer Prison in a “deplorable state,” having “clearly been assaulted with injuries around his body.” It said he was also “naked in the lower part of his body.”2
The deposition read, “The prison guards threw him in the middle of the yard and left him there. Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was unable to stand up. One of the prisoners helped him and accompanied him to one of the rooms. A few minutes later, prisoners were heard screaming from the room they went into, declaring Dr Adnan Al-Bursh [was dead].”
Before being taken to Ofer Prison, Al-Bursh was reportedly held in Sde Teiman detention centre. Khalid Hamouda, a fellow doctor also being detained there, told Sky News that Al-Bursh had been badly beaten. “He thought he may have broken ribs . . . He was unable to even go to the toilet alone,” he said.
In response to the reports Israel’s prison service told The BMJ that “all prisoners are detained according to the law” and “all basic rights required are fully applied by professionally trained prison guards.”
A spokesperson said, “We are not aware of the claims you described, and as far as we know no such events have occurred under IPS responsibility.
“Nonetheless, prisoners, detainees, or their representatives have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities.”
The IDF did not provide a comment.
Three doctors killed in detention
As at 24 September three Palestinian doctors have been confirmed to have died while in Israeli detention, including the internal medicine doctor Ziad Eldalou, who died on 21 March, after being detained during an Israeli raid of Al-Shifa Hospital on 18 March alongside many other staff. The World Health Organization said that at least 128 healthcare workers remained in custody after being arbitrarily detained by Israeli forces while on duty. However, this number is now likely to be higher, after the detention of dozens of male staff members from Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza last month.3
One of the doctors detained was the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) orthopaedic surgeon Mohammed Obeid, who was “detained by Israeli forces along with several medical staff” at Kamal Adwan Hospital on 26 October. Obeid had worked previously alongside his colleague and friend Al-Bursh at Al-Awda Hospital. Speaking to Sky News recently, Obeid recalled the moment that they were told they had to leave the hospital under an alleged threat by Israeli forces that they would otherwise destroy it “with all the women and children in it.”
Both MSF and The BMJ have requested information on Obeid’s status, location, and health, but no details have been provided.
A colleague remembers Al-Bursh: “Always smiling, positive, and keen to be involved”
Graeme Groom, orthopaedic surgeon at King’s College Hospital, London, told The BMJ about his friend and colleague Adnan Al-Bursh, whom he first met while working in Gaza.
“I think a great deal about Adnan, and now about our wonderful colleague Mohammed Obeid. We fear that he is following the same path and may also be killed in prison in Israel.
“I first met Adnan in 2009. He had just returned from a training programme in Jordan. He was full of life and energy. We were then contemplating how we might support the development of a service in Gaza for the most severely wounded patients. Adnan was recommended to us. He and I had an extended interview in which I learnt a great deal about him.
“He subsequently came to King’s College Hospital in London for six months in 2013, funded by a grant from the Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET) which itself was then fully funded by the Department for International Development. We got to know him well. He was a lovely fellow, always smiling, positive, and keen to be involved. He immersed himself in all aspects of our professional life while exploring every nook and cranny of London. He was welcomed into our homes. He sat at our tables. He loved it here.
“But most of all, he loved his family. He spoke to them every day. At night, when he was asleep, he left the camera on. His family could see him while he slept.
“When he returned to Gaza, we followed the same path for a while, and then he became independent. He worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross for a year and lately headed one of four orthopaedic departments at Shifa Hospital. We were shocked by the news of his arrest in December 2023 and appalled by word of his death on 19 April 2024.
“During his explorations, under a railway arch near Waterloo, he had found an 1860 print of the Great Omari Mosque in Gaza. It is one of the oldest in the world, built on the site of a Byzantine basilica, itself probably built on the foundations of a Philistine temple. We have sat and chatted there.
“Now Adnan is dead and the Great Mosque is destroyed. We weep for Adnan, for his family, and for Gaza. God bless you, Adnan, and keep you.”
Torture, sexual abuse, and rape
In June the United Nations reported severe “violations against Palestinians in Israeli custody” and shocking “levels of impunity for Israeli soldiers engaged in dehumanising, cruel, and humiliating behaviour towards Palestinians, including women and children.”4
During a field visit the UN special committee heard accounts from “multiple stakeholders” of a “stark increase in sexual harassment, sexual abuse, the threat of rape, and rape itself, including with foreign objects, against men, women, and even children, and intimidation through the use of dogs by Israeli security forces.”
A report by Human Rights Watch in August found that Palestinian healthcare workers in Gaza had been arbitrarily detained and deported to Israeli detention facilities, where they reported being beaten, tortured, and threatened with rape.5
Eight doctors, nurses, and paramedics who had since been released were interviewed by Human Rights Watch and provided similar accounts of the mistreatment they faced in Israeli custody. They described being “stripped, beaten, and blindfolded and handcuffed, for many weeks on end, and pressured to confess to being members of the Hamas movement with various threats of indefinite detention, rape, and killing their families in Gaza.”
No reason given for detention
Six of the people were detained while at work, after Israeli sieges of hospitals or during hospital evacuations. None of the healthcare workers said that they were ever informed of the reason for their detention or charged with an offence. They also reported that other detainees were tortured, including being raped and sexually abused by Israeli forces.
One surgeon told Human Rights Watch that he was detained while wearing his scrubs and crocs, during an Israeli raid of Kamal Adwan Hospital in December 2023. “We were 50 healthcare workers, including nurses and doctors . . . The soldier on the microphone ordered men and boys over 15 years old to evacuate the hospital . . . When they took us out of the hospital, they told us to undress and stay in our underwear,” he said.
One paramedic told Human Rights Watch he was held at Sde Teiman, the same detention facility where Al-Bursh was initially taken. He described being “suspended from a chain attached to handcuffs, electroshocked, denied medical care for broken ribs caused by beatings, and administered what he believed was a psychoactive drug before interrogations.”
Human Rights Watch has called for all allegations to be thoroughly investigated and punished, including by the International Criminal Court.
On 21 November the court issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, putting them at risk of arrest if they travel to any of the court’s 124 member states. It has also issued a warrant for Hamas leader Mohammed Deif, who the IDF claims to have killed.6
References
- ↵
- Mahase E
- ↵Sparks J. “He was the light of my life and I lost him”: How a famous surgeon died in an Israeli prison after being taken from Gaza hospital. John Sparks. Sky News. 14 Nov 2024. https://news.sky.com/story/he-was-the-light-of-my-life-and-i-lost-him-how-a-famous-surgeon-died-in-an-israeli-prison-after-being-taken-from-gaza-hospital-13253157
- ↵
- Mahase E
- ↵United Nations. UN special committee on Israeli practices in occupied territories concludes field mission. 25 Jun 2024. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/06/un-special-committee-israeli-practices-occupied-territories-concludes-field
- ↵Israel: Palestinian Healthcare Workers Tortured. 26 August 2024. https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/08/26/israel-palestinian-healthcare-workers-tortured
- ↵Human Rights Watch. Situation in the state of Palestine: ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I rejects the state of Israel’s challenges to jurisdiction and issues warrants of arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges
