Israeli medical staff 'beat' Palestinian detainees: Released Gaza doctor

Israeli medical professionals participated in the torture of Palestinian detainees in Gaza, Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the released director of Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital has said.

Abu Salmiya’s testimony was published in the renowned British Medical Journal BMJ on July 10.

“The doctor there beats the detainees, and the nurse beats the detainees. This is in violation of all international laws,” the Palestinian doctor explained in the piece.

The mistreatment took place in Sde Teiman, a controversial military-run detention facility established 18 miles from the Gaza border in the Negev desert by Israel following October 7.

Following his release on July 1, Dr. Abu Salmiya reported enduring daily torture during his time at Sde Teiman, where he was pressured by Israeli forces to declare on camera that the Al Shifa hospital is a covert Hamas base –an order he denied.

“My little finger was broken. I was repeatedly subjected to hitting on the head, causing bleeding multiple times,” he said.

Abu Salmiya was accused of links to Hamas when he was detained by Israeli forces along with 50 other people on November 23 –yet, during his seven months at Sde Teiman, Israeli authorities failed to charge him with any crime despite putting him through three separate trials.

On his return from the facility, the Palestinian doctor was visibly malnourished, almost unrecognisable due to the significant weight loss he suffered during his arrest.

Although Abu Salmiya’s was a recent account, questions surrounding allegations of torture inflicted on Palestinian prisoners by Israeli medical professionals have been raised for over a decade.

A 2013 article in another British medical journal The Lancet, mentioned “longstanding controversy over alleged physician complicity in torture,” referring to the death of a Palestinian prisoner under disputed circumstances. The Israeli Medical Association (IMA) denied these allegations at the time.

In June, several media outlets including The New York Times published harrowing accounts on the abuse of detainees at the military-run detention centre following October 7, 2023.

Testimonies since then include descriptions of strip searches, attacks by military dogs, prolonged stress positions as well as sexual violence.

Detainees also reported suffering heavy injuries from tightly locked handcuffs, which were kept on 24 hours a day as a rule, according to Haaretz.

An unnamed Israeli doctor who worked at the same facility confirmed that amputations due to handcuff injuries were commonplace, in a letter sent to Israel's defence minister, health minister, and attorney general in April.

"Just this week, two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event," a part of the letter published in Israeli newspaper Haaretz read.

So far, at least 36 prisoners from Gaza who were detained by the Israeli military since October 7 have died as a result of torture and harsh conditions at the Sde Teiman detention centre. The Israeli army has said it is 'conducting' criminal investigations into the deaths.

Despite Israel’s claims of holding “Hamas terrorists” under arrest at the facility, the people detained by Israel since are known to include doctors, journalists as well as children, all held without legal charges since Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza began over nine months ago.

In total, about 3,000 Palestinians including an unspecified number of children have been arrested in Gaza by Israeli forces then, according to estimates by the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.