Prominent Palestinian surgeon tortured, killed in Israeli detention: Rights groups

Palestinian rights advocacy groups say the head of orthopaedics at al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the besieged Gaza Strip, has been killed by torture during his detention in Israeli jails.

Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Committee and the Palestinian Prisoners Club said in a joint statement on Thursday that Adnan Ahmad al-Bursh, a Palestinian surgeon and professor of orthopaedic medicine, lost his life as a result of torture at the Israeli-run Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank last month.

The statement said the 50-year-old Palestinian surgeon died in what has been termed as "deliberate assassination” and “his body is still being held" by the Israeli regime.

Citing Palestinian authorities, the two rights advocacy groups said Bursh had been arrested with a group of other doctors last December at al-Awda Hospital near the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza and that he died on April 19.

The joint statement said another detainee, Ismail Abdul Bari Khader, 33, also died in Israeli custody and his body was handed over on May 2 along with 64 other prisoners.

“The two victims died of torture and crimes committed against Gazan detainees,” the statement said, adding that Bursh’s death was "part of a systematic targeting of doctors and the health system in Gaza.”

Stressing that the surgeon's death amounted to "murder," the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said it brought to 492 the number of health workers killed in Gaza since the Israeli war started nearly seven months ago.

The joint statement said the death of Bursh and Khader brought to 18 the number of deaths in Israeli custody since the war began on October 7.

The two rights advocacy groups renewed their call to the United Nations and all international institutions to fulfill their responsibilities regarding the crimes committed by the occupation against Palestinian detainees.

They stressed the need "to go beyond merely publishing reports, testimonials, and warnings, as after nearly seven months of genocide, all of this has lost its meaning, with the occupation being supported by clear international forces."

UN expert 'extremely alarmed'

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, said that she was "extremely alarmed" at the death of the prominent doctor.

"I urge the diplomatic community to intervene with concrete measures to protect Palestinians. No Palestinian is safe under Israel's occupation today," she wrote in a statement on X on Thursday. 

“How many more lives will have to be taken before UN member states, especially those demonstrating genuine concern for human rights globally, act to protect the Palestinians?”

Medical groups, including the World Health Organization, have repeatedly demanded that the Israeli regime stop its attacks on Gaza's medical facilities and healthcare workers.

Hamas: Killing of Palestinian abductees 'war crime'

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said the two Palestinian abductees died as a result of severe torture and medical neglect at Israel’s detention facilities.

Hamas said the killing of Palestinian abductees by Israeli forces is a "war crime" and part of the heinous acts perpetrated against Palestinian people by the regime.

The Gaza-based movement also called on the international community to take urgent action to denounce and criminalize the Israeli regime’s atrocities.

The Israeli war, which was launched following al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation by Hamas-led resistance groups, has so far killed at least 34,568 people, most of them women and children.

Over 77,700 Palestinians have also sustained injuries in the barbaric aggression, while thousands of others remain unaccounted for.

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