ICC is urged to investigate Israeli doctors’ potential involvement in torture of Palestinians
Elisabeth Mahase reports in the BMJ on 14 October 2026:
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has been urged to investigate whether Israeli doctors, as well as the Israeli Medical Association and officials from the Israeli ministries of health and defence, have been involved in the “death, torture, and ill treatment of Palestinian detainees.”1
The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has filed a communication under article 15 of the Rome Statute—a mechanism that allows anyone to submit information relating to alleged crimes for assessment by the Office of the Prosecutor—with the ICC, regarding events at the Sde Teiman detention facility.
Natacha Bracq, the HRF’s head of litigation, said, “The evidence shows that medical participation in torture and abuse at Sde Teiman was structural. The medical system kept detainees alive to endure further torture and interrogation while ensuring their injuries could not be traced through clinical records.
“HRF’s article 15 submission calls on the ICC prosecutor to investigate this system for what it is: a chain of complicity in torture extending from government ministers to practising physicians.”
The HRF is a campaigning group that uses legal action to fight for justice for Palestinians who have experienced violence or human rights violations. The group is named after Hind Rajab, a 5 year old Palestinian girl who was killed alongside her family by Israeli forces who fired more than 300 bullets into the family’s car.2
Evidence of torture and abuse
Several reports by the UN, Human Rights Watch, and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) have detailed accounts of abuse and torture from Palestinians held in Israeli detention, including many healthcare workers. PHRI has specifically called for Sde Teiman to be closed down, citing testimony from detainees and staff who said that medical professionals at the centre supported denying treatment to detained Gazans.