Palestinian Healthcare Workers Chained, Starved, Sexually Abused: New HRW Report on Israeli Prisons

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

We begin today’s show with a call by Human Rights Watch for the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel for arbitrarily detaining and torturing Palestinian healthcare workers. A new report by Human Rights Watch details the harrowing experiences of eight doctors, nurses and paramedics who were recently held in Israeli prisons, where they described being blindfolded, beaten, held in forced stress positions and handcuffed for extended periods of time. They also reported torture, including rape and sexual abuse, by Israeli forces.

Eyad Abed, a 50-year-old surgeon who was taken by Israeli forces from Beit Lahia’s Indonesia Hospital in November, told Human Rights Watch, quote, “Every minute we were beaten. I mean all over the body, on sensitive areas between the legs, the chest, the back. We were kicked all over the body and the face. They used the front of their boots which had a metal tip, then their weapons. They had lighters: one soldier tried to burn me but burned the person next to me. I told them I’m a doctor, but they didn’t care,” unquote.

Others described being held in metal cages and seeing other detained Palestinians beaten to death. The Human Rights Watch report also details how 36-year-old paramedic Walid Khalili was taken to the notorious Sde Teiman prison, where Israeli forces suspended him and dozens of other detainees, most of them stripped and wearing diapers, from the ceiling with chains attached to their handcuffs. Israeli forces then shocked him with electric wires. The report also referred to a Palestinian prisoner who was gang-raped by Israeli soldiers using an M16 rifle.

Human Rights Watch’s findings track with other reports by Gaza’s medical workers who have been detained by Israel since October 7th. In July, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, described his detention in an Israeli prison for seven months without charge.

DR. SAID ABDULRAHMAN MAAROUF: [translated] The torture was very severe in Israeli prisons. I am a doctor. My weight was 87 kilograms. I lost, in 45 days, more than 25 kilograms of my weight. I lost my balance. I lost focus. I lost all feeling. We were shackled for 45 days, handcuffed for 45 days. However you describe the suffering and insults in prison, you can never know the reality unless you lived through it.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Dr. Said Abdulrahman Maarouf.

For more, we’re joined in Ramallah by Milena Ansari, the Israel and Palestine assistant researcher for Human Rights Watch and a lawyer. She co-authored the new Human Rights Watch report, “Israel: Palestinian Healthcare Workers Tortured.”

Thank you very much for joining us. You’re joining us from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Can you talk, overall, about your findings? And who are all the people you talked to?

MILENA ANSARI: Thank you, Amy, and much appreciated for having us here.

The report on the torture and detention of Palestinian healthcare workers includes eight testimonies of Palestinian paramedics, nurses, doctors and surgeons who currently have been working in Gaza and living in Gaza for the past 10 months during the current hostilities. Many of the doctors and the nurses — six of them — were detained and arrested when they were actually in the hospital doing their duties and whatever they can to make sure Palestinians who are injured and Palestinians who need the medical care for their own survival are granted this humanitarian medical need. So, six of the doctors were detained during a siege on the hospitals, as well as during coordinated evacuation missions from the hospitals that are in the northern area of Gaza to hospitals in the southern areas. So, what I’m trying to say is, clearly, these healthcare workers were detained while they were doing their job, tasked and in a situation where Palestinians in Gaza are urgently needing medical care and medical assistance.

The testimonies, as you mentioned, are consistent with many other testimonies gathered by OHCHR, for example, Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, where it gives us a window into how Israeli authorities are treating Palestinians in detention. We were able to speak to eight healthcare workers in order to really connect and better understand the health infrastructure in Gaza. So, the detention and torture of healthcare workers at this current moment in Gaza is only exaggerating and worsening the conditions of the catastrophic health infrastructure in Gaza.

So, the testimonies are of torture, beatings, punches, kicks with steel-toed boots by Israeli soldiers, using military dogs to attack and intimidate detainees, but as well as using stress positions for prolonged period of times while being blindfolded and cuffed by the hands and feet. Many of the healthcare workers we spoke to, as healthcare workers being experts in medical knowledge, testified to us and reported seeing and witnessing and being themselves subjected to medical neglect, where they have seen detainees with visible trauma and blunt trauma on their bodies, visible bites of dogs on their bodies, as well. They told us, as well, from their wounds during their detention and arrest, they were not given any proper medical treatment. And when I talk about medical treatment inside detention, this is the bare minimum that’s guaranteed under international humanitarian law, where the Geneva Conventions require the detaining authority to provide proper medical healthcare, proper monitoring of the conditions. But then we have testimonies and we have reports that talk about amputation of Palestinian limbs, including hands and feet, from prolonged cuffings, and amputations without anesthesia, as well.

So, sadly, this is, honestly, just a small example of what Human Rights Watch was able to document. But we’re talking about hundreds of other cases of testimonies from either U.N. or Israeli human rights organizations that talk about some kind of a systematic pattern of ill-treatment and abuse in detention.

And really important to highlight that when we talk about these eight healthcare workers, for example, for specific, they were not charged with any offenses. They were not brought before trial. So this is why we concluded that the detention was unlawful. They were either detained from seven weeks up to five months, none of them being informed why they are being detained or for how long they are being detained. They’re just experiencing ill-treatment and torture at the hands of the Israeli authorities, which is, again, only a window into the general detention conditions of Palestinian prisoners and detainees. And currently, we’re talking about 9,000 Palestinians who are in Israeli custody. Three thousand of them are under administrative detention, which is detaining a person without trial, without charge, for an indefinite time. And this includes hundreds of children, dozens of women, as well, elderly, journalists and human rights defenders.

So we’re really ringing the alarm about the situation inside the Israeli custody and detention facilities. And again, when we talk about military bases or detention facilities where Palestinians are detained, these cases are of Palestinians who were taken outside of Gaza. So they were forcibly deported from Gaza into detention facilities and detention military bases inside Israel. And this is considered a war crime under international humanitarian law, of forcible deportation. And for those Palestinians who were detained inside the occupied West Bank or inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory, have been forcibly transferred outside of their occupied territory, which is also a war crime under international humanitarian law.

So, the alarms are ringing. And this is why Human Rights Watch is calling for the International Criminal Court Office of the Prosecutor to ensure including the treatment of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in their open investigation into the situation in Palestine. We know that the prosecutor at the ICC requested arrest warrants for two Israeli senior officials, as well as Hamas officials. So, for the Israeli officials, they are being — the arrest warrants are for war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, we did not notice that the ill-treatment, the detention and the torture of Palestinians inside Israeli detention was included during the calls or applications for arrest warrant. And we really sincerely put pressure on states and governments to also make sure that there is genuine accountability for the treatment of Palestinians inside Israeli detention.

As you may know, or to really highlight this information, that the International Committee for the Red Cross, that’s mandated to monitor detention conditions in order to make sure they comply with international standards, has been banned, since the start of the hostilities, from monitoring Israeli prisons and detention centers, which rings the alarm and the bells even higher with regards to what exactly is happening inside detention and inside Israeli custody, because we are hearing about reports of Palestinian deaths in custody. According to Haaretz, there are 48 cases of deaths in custody since the beginning of the hostilities, of Palestinians who were declared dead or have been killed inside detention. And there is no clarity to the reasons or the circumstances that led to their deaths. Physicians for Human Rights Israel was able to participate in the autopsy of five cases of Palestinian detainees who were pronounced dead inside Israeli detention. And some of the cases included clear medical neglect, and others included that the deaths was a cause of torture and ill-treatment. And I would just highlight that two cases of these deaths in custody were of Palestinian healthcare workers, like Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, who was declared by the Israeli Prison Services back in April killed, and as well as Dr. Eyad al-Rantisi, who was also killed during detention.

So, again, the bells are ringing. And there needs to be better clarity and understanding to what’s happening inside detention, but also to be confident in asking the question of “Why are these Palestinians inside detention, when they’re being detained for prolonged periods of time without being brought before a judge or even without any charges presented against them?” So, there’s a lot of questions that should be asked.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you, Milena — earlier, we played a clip of Dr. Said Abdulrahman Maarouf in February. He was jailed. He’s a Palestinian doctor, jailed by Israel for 45 days, described being tortured in Israeli custody, was jailed after Israeli forces raided al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. And now I want to play a clip for you from Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya. We mentioned him earlier. In July — he’s the director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza — he described his detention in an Israeli prison for seven months without charge.

DR. MUHAMMAD ABU SALMIYA: [translated] We were subjected to severe torture, and my little finger was broken. I was repeatedly subjected to hitting on the head, causing bleeding multiple times. There was almost daily torture in the Israeli prisons. When prisoners’ cells were raided daily, they were severely beaten every day. We say this with full certainty, and we lived through it with great bitterness. …

Colleagues working in the Ministry of Health and other prisoners got out with us today, about 50 prisoners. We left behind many prisoners, tens of thousands of prisoners, living in hardship, experiencing psychological and physical torture that no Palestinian prisoner has experienced since the Nakba in 1948. Our brave prisoners are subjected to all kinds of tortures behind bars. Even the older prisoners who have spent tens of years in the occupation prisons have been deprived of all of their most basic rights. Many prisoners have died while they were in interrogation and were deprived of medicine and food.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, held for seven months without charge. CNN also just reported this week that a former Palestinian detainee said he was sexually abused in Israeli prison. His name was Ibrahim Salem. He’s 34, arrested four days after an Israeli airstrike hit his home in Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza December 8th, killing eight of his relatives, injuring his wife and two of his three children. CNN reports, quote, “During interrogations, Salem said, he would be asked: ‘Where are the hostages? Where are Hamas’ weapons? Are you Hamas? Are you Qassam (Hamas’ military wing)? Are you Islamic Jihad?’ Salem alleges to have been beaten, verbally abused, had hot water poured on him, and told by soldiers that the rest of his family had been killed. But the worst part, he said, was the sexual abuse.” What has the Israeli government — how have they responded to your report?

MILENA ANSARI: So, the responses for the Israeli authorities has been in different ways. We did not have direct response. We sent them letters with our initial findings before releasing the report, for any comment or responses to specific questions. But as usual, since the beginning of the hostilities and for a few long time now, Human Rights Watch does not get any responses from the Israeli authorities when we reach out for any comment or any detailed information about the reports and investigation we have been doing.

But I can tell you about responses from Israeli officials or Israeli ministers with regards to the detention or treatment of Palestinian detainees. And we have seen, as you mentioned, the case of one Palestinian detainee who was gang-raped at Sde Teiman, where the Israeli military police investigating this case went inside Sde Teiman to arrest the 10 soldiers that are allegedly part of the sexual violence committed against the Palestinian detainee. And there was huge confrontation and backlash with Israeli right-wing protesters and Israeli soldiers who were in the same unit as the soldiers who were arrested. And there was a whole debate on Israeli media: How do Israeli authorities treat Palestinian detainees? And you have ministers saying that Israeli soldiers are the heroes of Israel, so they have the right to do whatever they want to do, including rape of Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody.

So, these are extremely alarming statements and alarming responses. But, unfortunately, they kind of reflect a general policy of how the Israeli authorities have been dealing with Palestinian detainees and allegations of torture. Human Rights Watch, for decades — we have a report from 1948 that looks into torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees during interrogation. And since then, we have not seen, as well as Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, like B’Tselem, have not seen genuine accountability and justice being implemented. It’s mainly, I would say, according to B’Tselem, what they reference these investigations as, whitewashing — any way to really not hold these soldiers or these prison guards accountable, but to provide them more impunity and more legal coverage.

There has been statements, for example, from the Israeli minister of defense, condemning the protests that happened in Sde Teiman about the arrest of the nine soldiers for allegations of sexual violence, but the statement did not include any condemnation for the treatment itself or the allegations that are in question. So this only shows more the lack of genuine accountability and the inability or unwillingness of the Israeli authorities to seriously look into the reports that are coming out from detention centers and even Israeli Prison Services, that’s in a way directly under the authority of the Israeli Minister of National Intelligence Ben-Gvir. You know, I would just recall and remind ourselves with the many statements that were coming out from Israeli ministers with regards to the death penalty of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, where — statements of in order to solve the overcrowding in Israeli detention, ministers have been calling for the death penalty to be implemented against Palestinians.

And this is not even talking about the food situation, the water situation, the sleeping situation inside detention, where the eight healthcare workers we spoke to, consistent with many reports we have heard and are seeing online, are saying about depriving detainees of food and water, depriving them of any sugar intake. One detainee, a released healthcare worker, told us that, from his understanding, the food that was provided to the detainees is the basic minimum to only survive the day. So, these detainees are not getting proper medical care, they’re not getting proper food and water intake, and, above all that, are being subjected to systematic ill-treatment and humiliation during detention. It’s not only during one phase of detention; it’s throughout, throughout arrest, detention and release, as well.

AMY GOODMAN: Milena Ansari, on Monday, you wrote a piece for Human Rights Watch about Walid Khalili, a paramedic and ambulance driver for the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, 36-year-old father of three. Your piece is headlined “A Palestinian Paramedic’s Ordeal in Israeli Detention.” As we begin to wrap up, can you tell us what happened to Walid Khalili on the morning of November 10th?

MILENA ANSARI: Walid Khalili was arrested or detained when he — he’s an ambulance driver with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. And he was answering a call for four injured men at that time, on that day, where on his way to the four injured men, he witnessed Israeli forces shooting the four men to death. So, when his mission was a rescue mission in order to transfer the injured Palestinian men to hospital, it turned into a detention, basically, a detention experience, where when the soldiers saw Khalili, Walid Khalili, approaching the four injured Palestinians who were later killed by Israeli forces, according to the testimonies of Walid Khalili, the soldiers called out Khalili, who ran to a nearby building to seek refuge and shelter from Israeli forces on the ground. Then, later, he was detained. Immediately, in the field, he was interrogated in the field and asked what he was doing there. He explained that he was basically on a rescue mission after being called to rescue the four injured men.

He was subjected to ill-treatment from the beginning. He was asked to completely strip off his clothes in public. He was immediately cuffed by his hand and feet and blindfolded, and then transferred to detention facilities and Israeli prisons, where he was interrogated repeatedly, specifically asking for forced confession. What I mean by this is, according to what Walid Khalili explained to us, most of the interrogation was about: Are you a member of Hamas? Do you know where Hamas is keeping hostages? And even with the repeated denial of any information that Walid Khalili has, when he reached Sde Teiman, he was hearing voices and screams of other detainees. And at that time, Israeli soldiers removed the blindfold on his eyes.

And the testimony Walid Khalili gave us, myself, it was extreme harrowing to understand. He said, immediately when the blindfold was removed, he saw hundreds — he said dozens of Palestinian detainees being suspended from chains that are connected to the ceiling of the warehouse in Sde Teiman. He saw the men wearing diapers and not being fully clothed or properly clothed, suspended by chains. And then he understood where these screams and sounds of torture are coming from.

He then told us and walked us through how Israeli forces forced him to wear a garment that has wires all around it and a headband that also had wires around it. And he was later suspended, as well, similar to the other detainees, from chains that were in the ceilings of Sde Teiman. And this garment, this white overall, basically, was used to electrocute and shock Walid Khalili repeatedly over and over during his interrogation or during his detention in Sde Teiman. So he was electrocuted, as well as he reported about cases of being struck with gasoline or being thrown — gasoline being thrown at him.

He also, during his transfer not to Sde Teiman but a different detention facility in an-Naqab authorized by the Israeli Prison Services, he had a Palestinian male detainee sit next to him who was visibly bleeding from his bottom area. And the man told Walid Khalili that he was subjected to rape by three soldiers who raped him with an M16 assault rifle during the strip search and during his interrogation.

So, unfortunately, at the end of the interview, when I was speaking with Walid Khalili, he was pleading for us, pleading for the international community, to really understand what the situation is for Palestinian detainees. It’s sexual violence. It’s rape. It’s medical neglect. It’s deprivation of food. And it’s all happening all at once, nonstop. And these are, you know, extremely harrowing testimonies. I worked with a Palestinian prisoner organization for three years, and we have never heard that thorough or that brutal and extremely violent testimonies been coming out.

And as well as I go back to the point, 9,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are currently in Israeli custody. This number is unprecedented. We have not seen this number since the Second Intifada in 2000. And again, these testimonies are not a case-by-case basis. We are hearing this from OHCHR. We’re hearing it from Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations. So, really, monitoring needs to be as soon as possible and immediate for detention conditions, and there needs to be a push on Israeli authorities to release Palestinians who are unlawfully detained, who don’t have any charges against them or trial against them.

AMY GOODMAN: Milena Ansari, I want to thank you for being with us. These are such horrifying accounts. Milena is a lawyer and the Israel and Palestine assistant researcher for Human Rights Watch. She co-authored their new report, “Israel: Palestinian Healthcare Workers Tortured.” We’ll link to that, as well as the piece you just wrote last week for them, “A Palestinian Paramedic’s Ordeal in Israeli Detention.”

When we come back, we come back to the United States. “Rent going up? One Company’s Algorithm Could Be Why.” We’ll speak with the ProPublica reporter whose investigation led to the Department of Justice lawsuit. Stay with us.