Senior doctors and surgeons – who were held without charge in Gaza – have detailed their torture, starvation and and denial of medical care in Israeli prisons, describing to The Guardian how they were beaten daily, and deprived of food.
Dr Khaled Serr (33)
Surgeon, Nasser Hospital in Gaza
Detained:
25 March 2024
Released:
1 October 2024
On 25 March we were in Nasser Hospital when they stormed the hospital. They ordered us to evacuate through loudspeakers mounted on drones. We left the hospital, where Israeli armoured vehicles and soldiers were stationed pointing their rifles and tank cannons at us.
We were ordered to remove our clothes and taken to a pit that had been prepared in advance next to the hospital. All the medical staff were put in the pit (then) thrown into a military vehicle and taken across the border from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
Throughout this period, we were severely, brutally beaten. I suffered bone fractures on my right side, which affected me greatly all the way through the first three or four months of detention. I never got any medical care.
After two or three hours we arrived at the prison. Our names and numbers were taken and we were led, with eyes covered and hands handcuffed, into Sde Teiman detention camp.
I was taken to an open space surrounded by metal bars, like a warehouse. We were given a thin mat and told to sit in the same position from 5am until 10pm. It was forbidden to speak. We were blindfolded the whole time with our hands in metal cuffs.
I was in shock, in complete denial of being inside that prison and tried to avoid anything that would mean a punishment. However, on the third day an Israeli prison repression unit stormed the prison with dogs and batons. We were ordered to lie on the ground. If anyone raised their head they were severely beated. I was beaten where I lay and heard the screams of prisoners (who had been) singled out. Many suffered permanent disabilities.
Dr Bassam Miqdad (58)
Head of orthopaedic, the European Hospital
Detained:
24 January 2024
Released:
1 July 2024
In Gaza we are used to war but this time it was different. At the hospital (during the war) you would begin to lose your soul because of the horrors we saw daily. Things that are difficult to describe or put into words because they were so awful. Day after day, the exhaustion and the work increased. I was constantly on the edge of breaking down.
I was pulled out of the line at a checkpoint when I was with my family trying to leave Khan Younis, which was under siege. They told me to take off my clothes except my underwear and I left everything else on the ground – my ID, even my socks, and had to walk barefoot.
They asked me my name and my profession and when I said I was a doctor they handcuffed and blindfolded me. All around me I could hear people screaming. Then I began to be beaten by a group of soldiers.
We were put in a transport vehicle and beaten with sticks. They urinated on us. They used curse words. In the vehicle you are in a pile, people lying on top of you. We were all still blindfolded and handcuffed. I was told to jump down and I fell and fractured my ankle but I had to get up and walk with my back tilted back at 90 degrees.
Dr Mahmoud Abu Shehada (42)
Head of orthopaedic surgery, Nasser Hospital
Detained:
22 November 2023
Released:
1 July 2024
All the medical staff were lined up …they made us take off our clothes. Then we were moved to the maternity building, where they checked our identities. We were handcuffed behind our backs, blindfolded and taken to the ground floor of the building. They humiliated and degraded us, subjected us to severe beatings. From late Friday night to the early hours of Saturday morning, we were cold and naked, with cold water thrown on us.
Early in the morning, we were loaded into large, open trucks and transferred to detention facilities (in Israel). They threw water on us and beat us badly during this transfer. We were later transferred to Ofer camp, to rooms each housing 15 to 20 detainees. There, we continued to be beaten and humiliated. Groups of masked soldiers would enter the room. They would take our food and water and throw it outside.
I spent almost three months in Ofer. They gave us small pieces of bread with a small amount of yoghurt and a spoon of jam. It was not enough to keep us going.
Dr Said Maarouf (57)
Paediatrician, al-Ahli Arab Hospital
Detained:
18 December 2023
Released:
2 February 2024
When the war started, I kept working. There were many injuries and disease was widespread but there were very few of us doctors. I was at the Kamal Adwan Hospital and stayed there until we received orders from the Israeli army to leave the hospital. I left and went to al-Ahli Hospital, where I was arrested, with my son, who is a medical student in the first year of university. Right from the beginning we were tortured.
For 45 days …and starved of food in Sde Teiman detention camp. By then I was exhausted and sick. They didn’t give us any medical treatment. I lost 25kg. I couldn’t stand, eat or move.
Dr Saleh Eleiwa (30)
Physician, emergency training programme
Detained:
18 November 2023
Released:
4 April 2024
I was arrested at the Netzarim checkpoint and held for 138 days. The first two were spent at the Sde Teiman camp, then I was transferred to the Ofer camp, for 130 days.
The torture and mistreatment included forced stripping, starvation, solitary confinement and deprivation of basic hygiene rights, like bathing or changing clothes. We were subjected to daily beatings, denied access to medical treatment and refused necessary medication.
Even detainees with chronic illnesses who were taken to see a doctor were often beaten by the doctors themselves. The interrogations were relentless, continuing around the clock.
Dr Ahmad Mhanna (50)
Anaesthetist and intensive-care specialist
Detained:
16 December 2023
Released:
Still in detention
I was taken to a military barracks where I spent 21 days. During this period, they took me to the “Disco” – an interrogation room with deafening music and freezing temperatures. I slept on gravel, wearing only a thin tracksuit. They told me I would be released that day, but instead, I was sent to Naqab prison.
The humiliation worsened. They insulted my family and my religion. They used to let the dog drink from a bowl of water and then pour the rest over me. I fell down because my legs were shackled. They laughed and kicked me.
At one point, they forced me to stand for six hours in the cold, arms raised and shackled, before interrogating me. I told them the same thing every time: “I am a doctor. I do not belong to anything else.”
Medical care was non-existent. If I had a fever at night, they refused to give me a painkiller. Skin diseases were rampant. Fruits and vegetables were almost entirely absent. We were given a quarter of a cucumber or carrot, never more. Every day was a battle against degradation.
Testimony taken from a letter to Mhanna’s family dictated to his lawyer.
In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said: “During the fighting in the Gaza Strip, suspects of terrorist activities were arrested. The relevant suspects have been taken for further detention and questioning in Israel. Those who are not involved in terrorist activity are released back to the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.”
The IDF said it provided each detainee with suitable clothing, a mattress, regular food and drink, and that they had access to medical care. It also said that handcuffing of detainees was carried out in accordance with IDF policies. It said it was aware of incidents where detainees had died in detention and that investigations were conducted for each of these deaths.
“The IDF acts in accordance with Israeli and international law to protect the rights of the detainees held in the detention and questioning facilities,” it said.
Dr Issam Abu Ajwa
General surgeon, al-Ahli Arab hospital
Detained:
17 December 2023
Released:
1 July 2024
Age:
63
In detention you had to sleep on the floor which they had covered with small, sharp rocks, with your hands and legs tied and your eyes blindfolded. They would pour cold water on you and put on fans and bring powerful air conditioners. They would play loud music 24 hours a day.
In interrogations it would be dark and my hands and feet would be bound. They made me stand on my tiptoes for two or three hours and (would) then throw me to the floor and spray me with water. Then three or four guards would beat me.
After months in detention, they transferred me to Negev prison in the desert. It was summer and very hot. They locked us inside tents. We had to ask for permission to use the bathroom, but the sick weren’t allowed to go and were told to soil themselves.
We contracted scabies because we hadn’t washed or changed our clothes in six months.
Your body felt like it was burning, but they wouldn’t give us treatment.
We could only drink hot water from the pipes once a day. We didn’t have shoes and they would make us stand on the asphalt with bare feet for two or three hours in 37 degree C heat. The food was just yoghurt and a bit of rice. I lost half my body weight. They never charged me with anything and I didn’t get to see a lawyer during seven months of imprisonment.
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