More than 160 Gazan medics held in Israeli prisons amid reports of torture
Doctors detained near Kamal Adwan hospital, include Dr Khalid Hamoudeh (left) and Dr Wadee Qasem (right) (Guardian composite)
Annie Kelly, Hoda Osman and Farah Jallad report in The Guardian on 25 February 2025:
At least 160 healthcare workers from Gaza, including more than 20 doctors, are believed to still be inside Israeli detention facilities as the World Health Organisation expressed deep concern about their wellbeing and safety.
Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical NGO, said it had confirmed that 162 medical staff remained in Israeli detention, including some of Gaza’s most senior physicians, and a further 24 were missing after being taken from hospitals during the conflict.
Muath Alser, director of HWW, said the detention of large numbers of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other healthcare workers from Gaza was illegal under international law and was furthering the suffering of civilians by denying them medical expertise and care. “Israel’s targeting of the healthcare workforce in this manner is having a devastating impact on the provision of healthcare to Palestinians, with extensive suffering, countless preventable deaths, and the effective eradication of whole medical specialities,” said Alser.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it has verified that 297 healthcare workers from Gaza have been detained by the Israeli military since the war began, but the organisation had no updated data on how many have been released or remain in detention.
HWW says its data shows the number is slightly higher and that it has verified that 339 healthcare workers from Gaza have been detained by the Israeli military.
The WHO said it was “deeply concerned about the wellbeing and safety of Palestinian health workers in Israeli detention”, after reports that detainees in Israeli prison facilities were routinely subjected to violence and mistreatment.
See also: ‘No rules’: Gaza’s doctors say they were tortured, beaten and humiliated in Israeli detention here
and ‘They forced me to stand for hours in the cold, arms raised and shackled’: eight Gaza doctors on their Israeli prison ordeal’ here