Israel’s imprisonment of Palestinian medical professionals has left them in a state of “Hell”

The 49-year-old Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh’s life was very different from the way he died.

During December, the Israeli army arrested the head of orthopedics at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital while he was working at the al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza. They said it was for “national security reasons.”

Four months later, guards at Ofer jail dragged Al-Bursh and dumped him in the jail yard, where he was bleeding, naked below the waist, and unable to stand, according to a statement from HaMoked, an Israeli human rights group.

When other inmates saw him, they carried Al-Bursh to a nearby room, where he died right away.

Thanks to the video diaries he made before his arrest, Dr. Al-Bursh became a regular in many people’s lives.

His videos showed him and his coworkers digging mass graves in the al-Shifa yard to bury people because Israel wouldn’t let their bodies be taken to a cemetery. They also worked with little or no equipment to treat the injured and the dying, while simultaneously waiting for Israel to attack a hospital where thousands of people had sought help.

The attack occurred in the middle of November, and Dr. Al-Bursh captured footage of the Israeli army telling al-Shifa, its patients, staff, and the approximately 50,000 displaced people hiding in the compound to leave.

Prior to the attack in November, he worked at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, after which he transferred to the Al-Awda Hospital.

There, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem arrested him and sent him to a jail system they refer to as “Hell.”

Israel regularly imprisons medical professionals such as Dr. Al-Bursh, subjecting them to harsh conditions for the purpose of “investigation.”

Naji Abbas, head of Physicians for Human Rights Israel’s prisoners’ department, said, “Most of the doctors and nurses [held by Israel] who spoke to PHRI said that the investigation was ‘fishing’ for information, but they weren’t accused of any charges.”

After months without charges or a fair trial, our lawyer visited dozens of healthcare workers still detained in Israeli jails. Most of them never saw a lawyer,” he said.

Israel has jailed at least 310 Palestinian health care workers since the war on Gaza started in October 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.

Many of them have said they were abused and treated badly, including being put in stressful situations and not being given food or water, as well as being sexually abused and raped.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) spokeswoman Milena Ansari said, “The healthcare workers we’ve talked to have been held for anywhere from seven days to five months.” HRW’s August report on the arbitrary detention and abuse of healthcare workers detailed the case.

“Many times, we don’t even charge them; we just ask general questions like, ‘Who is your Imam?'” I asked, “What mosque do you visit?” I also asked, “Are you a member of Hamas?” but she refused to provide any proof.

Many Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have reportedly endured torture and mistreatment for a long time.

However, every analyst Al Jazeera spoke with identified two distinct phases in the significant deterioration of conditions and increase in abuse: the first occurred following Itamar Ben-Gvir’s appointment as national security minister in 2022, and the second occurred following the onset of the Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023, which led to a surge in prisoner abuse.

“If you’re a Palestinian, they don’t care if you’re from Gaza or Jerusalem, a doctor or a worker—you’re the enemy,” said Shai Parness of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

He stated that the system is both brutal and planned. B’Tselem’s report in August, Welcome to Hell, called the system “a network of torture camps.”

Ansari said, “It’s not just cruelty, shame, and sexual abuse; it’s everything.”

There were numerous reports of physical and sexual abuse, according to Ansari.

She told HRW about a paramedic who came across another prisoner who was bleeding from his anus and told them that three Israeli guards had taken turns raping him with their M16 weapons.

The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, said in July that prisons were too crowded. In response, Ben-Gvir wrote on X, “Since I became minister of national security, one of the highest goals I have set for myself is to worsen the conditions of the terrorists in the prisons and to reduce their rights to the minimum required by law.”

Earlier that same week, he released a video in which he advocated shooting prisoners in the head rather than giving them more food.

“It was bad; it always was bad, but after Ben-Gvir’s appointment, things got really bad,” Abbas told Al Jazeera. Since October, it’s been unreal. It has been horrible.

Before the war, many Palestinian inmates suffered from long-term illnesses. Now, thousands more people are incarcerated, which means that many more people with long-term illnesses are not receiving treatment.

The Sde Teiman detention center arrested Israeli troops in July on charges of regularly torturing and raping prisoners. Protesters, including elected officials, crowded Sde Teiman and the nearby Beit Lid base, calling for the soldiers’ release.

After the arrests, Ben-Gvir wrote to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called the soldiers’ charges of rape and abuse “shameful.” Regarding prison conditions, he said, “The summer camps and patience for the terrorists are over.”

According to an Israeli military statement to Sky News in the UK, they transported Dr. Al-Bursh from Al-Awda to Sde Teiman.

According to another prisoner, Dr. Khalid Hamouda, health care workers made up about a fifth of the approximately 100 people detained at Sde Teiman.