Israel keeps 24 Palestinian doctors from Gaza locked up

Ramallah, August 4^th.- The Palestinian Center for the Defense of Prisoners today accused Israel of keeping 24 doctors detained in recent months in the Gaza Strip imprisoned under torture and in terrible conditions.

The Non-Governmental Organization stated in a statement that the doctors are subjected to systematic and deliberate abuse.

In this regard, it noted that the mistreatment caused the death in prison of doctors Adnan al-Barsh and Iyad al-Rantisi.

Faced with this situation, it urged the World Health Organization and the United Nations to pressure the Israeli authorities to release them.

Since the beginning of the aggression against Gaza, in October 2023, the Army arrested more than 400 doctors, nurses, administrators and health technicians in the territory, it stressed.

In the middle of last month, lawyer Ghadeh Ghanem Qassem denounced that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Gazan hospital Kamal Adwan, was systematically subjected to physical and psychological torture in Israel.

After visiting her client, the lawyer warned that the doctor now weighs only 60 kilograms, after losing about 40 since his arrest in December of last year.

On her Facebook page, Ghanem Qassem explained that he suffered blows to the chest, face, head and neck, which caused serious injuries.

She said that the Israeli prison authorities refused to provide him with the necessary treatment or medication and refrained from referring him to a specialist, despite the fact that he suffers from an irregular heart rate.

Last year, the doctor lost his son, Ibrahim, in an Israeli attack against the entrance of the hospital and was injured by shrapnel from a drone. However, he continued to care for children despite the difficult circumstances. (Text and photo: PL)