Aid groups urge Israel to release Palestinian doctor detained after speaking out for jailed colleague
Dr Dima Mohammed Amin Barakat
Anam Alam reports in The New Arab on 26 August 2026:
Aid groups are calling for the release of a Palestinian doctor who has been held in Israeli detention for over a week, with her ordeal having been extended despite her requiring treatment after suffering a cardiac arrest in custody.
Israeli forces raided Dr Dima Mohammed Amin Barakat’s home on 18 August and detained her after she spoke publicly about the treatment of a detained colleague. The gynaecologist’s family members were also left unaware and uninformed of her whereabouts for 36 hours.
“It is outrageous that Palestinian doctors and other healthcare workers are being detained,” Aseel Baidoun, Deputy Director of Advocacy and Communications at Medical Aid for Palestinians, told The New Arab.
“Healthcare workers should be able to carry out their essential work, and to advocate for the safety and dignity of colleagues, without fear for their own safety or freedom.”
Barakat’s arrest came after the detention of Dr Mazen Al-Rantisi, known in the occupied West Bank as the “doctor of the poor” for providing low-cost services to lower-income patients, which the doctor was vocal about days before her detention.
Since Barakat’s arrest, she has suffered a cardiac episode in detention and underwent cardiac catheterisation before being returned to interrogation. Her lawyers also reported that she spent several days in solitary confinement and was denied necessities, including her glasses and a mattress.