October 9, 2024
Labour Hub Editors
In a comprehensive report, Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW) is sharing first-hand testimony from Palestinian healthcare workers who have been tortured while in Israeli detention. The Killing, Detention, and Torture of Healthcare Workers in Gaza contains the organisation’s detailed research, compiled over the past year, regarding Israel’s killing and detention of healthcare workers, including an analysis of the devastating impact on the provision of healthcare to the population of Gaza.
Through the rigorous evidence collected as primary data by HWW, this report outlines patterns of human rights violations carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces that are unambiguously consistent with deliberate acts to inflict upon a specific population – the Palestinians living in Gaza – serious physical and psychological harm, consistent with the intent of genocide. These patterns of conduct include the targeted killing, injuring, detention and systemic torture of healthcare workers in a manner that is leading to death and disability of the Palestinian population by depriving them of healthcare, both in the short and long term.
This report also provides evidence of a wider pattern of genocidal conduct that has led to the largescale destruction of the healthcare system of Gaza. This includes the military besiegement, invasion and deliberate destruction of hospitals and medical equipment, forcing hospitals out of service, in some cases permanently. As a direct result of these crimes, tens of thousands of Palestinians are dying entirely preventable deaths due to a lack of access to adequate healthcare.
Dr. Muath Alser, the founder of HWW says: “In this report, we use rigorous evidence to demonstrate how the Israeli Occupation Forces are systematically targeting the healthcare workforce of Gaza. The patterns of human rights violations are unambiguously consistent with the intent of genocide.”
He goes on to say: “The key message from Healthcare Workers Watch is that all healthcare workers – especially those working in areas of conflicts and war zones – must be protected, supported, and respected instead of being targeted, tortured, and detained.”
Among the report’s findings are:
- HWW has confirmed the killing of a total of 587 healthcare workers in Gaza since October 7th 2023, and are in the process of verifying the killing of a further 420 healthcare workers. One third of those confirmed killed are women (194).
- HWW data shows that 105 senior physicians were killed or detained by the Israeli military since October 7th 2023, constituting 23% of Gaza’s most experienced physicians. This includes 39 killed consultants, 41 detained consultants, 19 killed specialists and 6 detained specialists.
- As of September 20th 2024, HWW documented 264 cases of unlawful detention of Palestinian healthcare workers in the Gaza Strip by Israeli Occupation Forces since October 7th 2023. These include 73 physicians, 2 dentists, 80 nurses, 36 paramedics, six pharmacists, one optometrist, 21 technicians, 29 healthcare administrative staff, four healthcare students, three volunteers, and nine others. Four of those detained were killed while in detention, 127 remain in detention currently, 23 are missing, and 110 were released (three of them were detained twice, then released). Fifty-five were from North Gaza, 91 from Gaza City, one from the Middle Area, 115 from Khan Younis, and two from Rafah.
- Several released healthcare workers interviewed by Healthcare Workers Watch reported being subjected to systematic torture and inhumane treatment in Israeli detention.
According to messages received from several healthcare workers in Northern Gaza, and also a statement recently released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Israeli Occupation Forces are now threatening all healthcare workers and patients in northern Gaza’s hospitals, ordering them to evacuate to the south or they will face the same fate as Al-Shifa Hospital, where mass graves of men, women and children were found following the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
So far, Israeli Occupation Forces have detained a paramedic while transferring a critically ill patient from the ICU of Kamal Adwan Hospital. The fate of the paramedic is unknown.
HWW are profoundly concerned about the safety of healthcare workers and the existence of the northern Gaza population as they are “facing a serious escalation of genocidal acts that render northern Gaza unliveable due to indiscriminate military actions and the destruction of the healthcare system through the killing, detention, and torture of healthcare workers and the wanton destruction of hospitals.”
Regarding the new report, HWW say: “We release this report in memory of the hundreds of healthcare workers killed in Gaza by the Israeli Occupation Forces, given the complete absence of effective international response, utter impunity, and failure of concerned organisations to prevent or stop these crimes, let alone hold their perpetrators accountable.”
Healthcare Workers Watch is powered by dedicated volunteers committed to documenting the Israeli attacks against healthcare workers in Palestine, and taking action accordingly. For more information, see www.healthcareworkerswatch.org
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