Israel arrested a senior doctor in Gaza. Six days later, he died in a Shin Bet interrogation facility

Shikma prison in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon

Hagar Shezaf, Josh Breiner and Jack Khoury report in Haaretz on 18 June 2024:

A senior doctor from Gaza died while under Shin Bet interrogation, six days after initially being detained. His death, which occurred in November, has prompted a probe by the Justice Ministry department that investigates complaints against Shin Bet interrogators.

Dr. Iyad Rantisi, 53, directed a women’s hospital that is part of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip. He was arrested November 11 and was declared dead six days later at Shikma Prison, the site of a Shin Bet interrogation facility. According to the Shin Bet, he was interrogated on suspicion of involvement in holding Israeli hostages in Gaza.

The Justice Ministry said the department had concluded its investigation into the circumstances of Rantisi’s death and is reviewing its findings.  After Rantisi died, the Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court issued a six-month gag order prohibiting publication of all details of the case, including the existence of the gag order. The court order expired in May.

The manager of the Kamal Adwan hospital, Dr. Husam Abu Safia, told Haaretz that neither he nor Rantisi’s family received any information about his fate. According to him, Rantisi was detained at an army checkpoint while attempting to cross from north to south Gaza, following the Israeli military’s orders for the civilian population to evacuate at the beginning of the war. He said that Rantisi was detained by the military and never heard from since, and that the fact that his whereabouts are unknown made them worried that he died in custody and his body is being held in Israel.

Dr. Iyad Rantisi

Rantisi is the second Gazan physician known to have died in Israeli custody during the war in Gaza. The first was Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, 53, a surgeon who led the orthopedic department at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital. The father of six died April 19 at Ofer Prison, in the West Bank. He was arrested in Khan Yunis in December.  As Haaretz has reported, no Israeli authority has provided an explanation of the circumstances of Bursh’s death. His widow, Yasmin al-Bursh, has asked the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court to appoint an investigator to examine the circumstances of his death.

The Israeli military is investigating 36 deaths at its Sde Teiman detention facility, two deaths at the Anatot detention center and the deaths of two people who died en route to a detention center. These figures do not include Palestinians from Gaza who died in prisons operated by the Israel Prison Service.

The Justice Ministry unit that examines complaints against Shin Bet agents does not have the authority to conduct a criminal investigation. When a probe raises suspicions of criminal conduct, the case is transferred to the Justice Ministry department that investigations allegations of police misconduct.

According to data published by the Israeli outlet Shomrim, the department has opened only two criminal investigations against Shin Bet agents regarding detainees who were interrogated between 2014 and July 2022. The first involved Samer Arbid, who was charged with heading a terror cell that murdered Rina Shnerb, a 17-year-old girl, in the West Bank. He was hospitalized in critical condition after an interrogation. Then Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit closed the case in 2021. The second case, which was closed for lack of evidence, involved a search of the genitals of a Palestinian prisoner in 2015.

In a statement, the Shin Bet confirmed the details of Rantisi’s arrest and said he died in the detention center’s infirmary November 17, 2023. “The relevant authorities are reviewing the circumstances of his death,” the agency added.

The Justice Ministry said in a statement that the unit that investigates complaints against Shin Bet agency opened a probe immediately after Rantisi’s death, “during which various measures were taken to clarify its circumstances. The investigation ended recently and its findings are under review.”

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