‘Designed to humiliate’: Israel’s torture of Gaza’s healthcare workers

Palestinian surgeon Dr. Khaled Alser recalled, his voice hoarse, the torture and humiliation inflicted upon him and other medical personnel by Israeli soldiers. He stated that these abuses were "designed to humiliate us." The 33-year-old doctor said during a shaky online call, "They forced us to make donkey noises."

Dr. Alser, along with other medical staff, was arrested last March at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Despite the Israeli army's attack on the hospital in February, they remained to care for patients. Human rights organizations say the arrests are part of a deliberate Israeli targeting of medical personnel, noting that more than 250 Palestinian medical workers have been arrested.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), in its report "Torture of Medical Personnel by Israel," documented the arbitrary detention and abuse suffered by medical personnel in Gaza. Dr. Alser was one of the medical personnel interviewed for the report, and a video of him tearfully reuniting with his father upon his return to Gaza was recorded.

On a shaky phone line from Gaza, Dr. Alser detailed his detention experience. He described how on March 25th last year, he and other doctors, nurses, and staff were forced to leave the hospital and were stripped naked "in a public place and in front of soldiers and nearby houses." "Then they made us put on our underwear and tied our wrists with plastic ties."

Dr. Alser was interrogated three times, twice by soldiers and once by someone who identified himself as being from Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency. Najy Abbas of Physicians for Human Rights Israel said that the purpose of the interrogations was to determine whether medical personnel had obtained any information that could help Israel's attacks on Gaza, a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions protecting medical personnel. They repeatedly asked: "They asked about my identity, my work, and what I was doing on October 7th. Where was I, who did I treat? It had nothing to do with me."

Israel has detained more than 250 Palestinian medical personnel during the war, including doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other essential medical staff, with more than 150 still in detention. Of the 24 medical personnel interviewed for the NGO's report, all stated that they had not been formally charged or presented with any credible evidence against them. Instead, they were threatened, beaten, and humiliated while being questioned about captives seized from Israel, tunnels, and any information they might have heard about Hamas movements.

A doctor named KJ recalled being told during one assault: "We will cut off your fingers because you are a dentist." Another senior surgeon, MT, told the NGO that military dogs were released to attack detainees while soldiers watched and laughed. "They made us bark like dogs," he said. Many medical personnel confirmed that they had been subjected to sexual and psychological abuse by Israeli soldiers, including being stripped naked, held in stress positions for extended periods, threatened against their families, and forced to play "games" or face further beatings.

Dr. Alser recalled: "On March 28th, the soldiers called out my name and the names of two other civilian prisoners, aged around 16 and 17." "It was night. They tied our wrists and ankles very tightly and put us in a military vehicle. No one told us anything. We drove for about two hours into the mountains. Along the way they beat us, kicked us, and humiliated us." "They kept laughing. I tried to explain in English that the ropes on my wrists were too tight, but they just said I was a doctor, so I was fine." "Around 4 a.m., I heard a man say in Arabic: 'These three are going to be hanged.'"

The surgeon said, "I... thought the end of the world had come." "I was in so much pain. They broke my ribs. Even when they said I was going to be hanged, I didn't care. I just wanted it all to end." Dr. Alser was not released until late September, reuniting with his parents, who are his only caregivers. In total, he suffered more than six months of torture in Israeli detention without charge, half of that time in isolation under Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law.

Najy Abbas of Physicians for Human Rights Israel told Al Jazeera: "This is illegal in many ways." "First, you can't just arrest someone for what is clearly a fishing expedition, and second, medical personnel are a protected class under international humanitarian law." The abuse and starvation inflicted on medical personnel by Israel is "a moral and legal outrage," but it appears to be a policy.

"No [medical personnel] have been charged with anything or formally indicted," he said. "Others were presented with someone who they were told was a judge – sometimes in military uniform, or on the other end of a phone line – who told them that they would be detained, possibly until the end of the war." "We don't know who these people are," he said.

Abbas recalled: "Many of the people we spoke to talked about being subjected to sexual violence and humiliation." "The use of dogs to attack or urinating on prisoners seemed to happen frequently." "The aim is to strip Palestinian men – especially doctors – of their dignity. This kind of torture also leaves scars; scars that take a long time to heal."

Reports of Israeli forces torturing medical personnel for intelligence have been ongoing, and according to the legal representative of Dr. Husam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, it continues to this day. Dr. Abu Safiya was seized by Israeli forces last December. Dr. Abu Safiya's case is similar to the arbitrary detention of 49-year-old Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, who UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said in a social media post last November "most likely died under torture" in Israeli detention.

Last August, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Israel's arrest and torture of medical personnel in Gaza, saying the matter warrants investigation by the International Criminal Court. Human Rights Watch interviewed several medical personnel detained by Israel during forced evacuations of medical facilities, who noted repeated incidents of humiliation, beatings, and forcing prisoners to maintain stress positions. They also reported torture, including rape and sexual assault by Israeli forces.

Milena Ansari, a lawyer with Human Rights Watch who worked on the report, said: "Their status as medical personnel did not prevent the abuse." "Surgeons, paramedics, doctors and nurses have all been abused. One surgeon told me that he was interrogated in his surgical scrubs... the soldiers simply didn't care."

A report released last year by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stated that it was "clear" that the mass detention of medical personnel during the blockade also contributed to the collapse of the health system, which to date has resulted in the deaths of some 60,000 Palestinians, and the health system is desperately trying to mitigate the impact of Israeli attacks on the people of Gaza.

Dr. Alser paused the call for five minutes as a crisis arose in his ward that required his attention. "I am in a lot of pain," he said as he returned to the phone. "I know I will not fully recover. I just cover it up with work and keep busy."