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Report: Gaza doctor tortured to death during Israeli interrogation

Tuesday, 18 June 2024 3:42 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 18 June 2024 4:59 PM ]

Israeli forces trnasfer abducted Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip. (File by AFP)

A prominent physician from Gaza was killed in November while under interrogation by Israel’s internal spy agency Shin Bet.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Tuesday that Iyad Rantisi, 53, was abducted on November 11 at an Israeli checkpoint while seeking to flee south from Israeli bombing in northern Gaza.

Rantisi was declared dead six days later at Shikma Prison, which is home to a Shin Bet interrogation facility.

Rantisi directed a women's hospital that is part of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia.

Rantisi's family and hospital colleagues heard nothing more about him, leading them to worry he was killed in Israeli custody.

The Israeli daily said after Rantisi was killed, the Ashkelon Magistrate's Court issued a six-month gag order prohibiting the publication of all details of the case, including the existence of the gag order.

Haaretz is now able to report on the case because the court order expired in May.

It is unclear how Rantisi died, but Israel has a long history of torturing Palestinians.

Another Palestinian physician from Gaza, Adnan al-Bursh, 53, was also killed while in Israeli custody.

Bursh led the orthopedic surgery department at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital and was abducted in Khan Yunis in December. The father of six died four months later, on April 19, at Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli authorities have not explained the circumstances of Bursh's death.

More than three dozen Palestinians from Gaza held at Israel's Sde Teiman detention facility have also died, presumably under torture.

Israel tortured 48 Palestinians to death in its detention centers, report reveals

Thirty-six of the victims lost their lives inside the regime’s notorious military-run Sde Teiman detention camp.

These figures do not include Palestinians from Gaza who died in prisons operated by the Israel Prison Service.

In early June, the New York Times published a report which included accounts of torture at Sde Teiman. Israeli guards used electric chairs to shock detainees.

Medical organizations, including the World Health Organization, have repeatedly called for a halt to attacks on Gaza healthcare workers.

Israel keeps preventing the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees from delivering life-saving aid to Palestinians suffering from the savage campaign in Gaza.

Israel has also refused to fulfill its promise of securing a road that will facilitate the movement of aid convoys.

Other international aid organizations have also warned against Israeli policies of prolonging inspections and delays which impede aid deliveries.

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