360 Health Workers In Gaza Detained By Israel Since October 7, 2023

Health facilities in Gaza affected by Israeli attacks. (Source: WAFA)

JAKARTA - Medical sources said about 360 health workers had been detained since the beginning of the genocide in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, including doctors with essential medical and specialized expertise, so they could not serve patients and injured victims.

Media sources said in a press release Monday that Israeli occupation forces imposed strict restrictions on detainees in general, and particularly on medical personnel, as they lived in difficult and tragic conditions in prisons.

Sources added that detention lawyer Hussam Abu Safia, a doctor who has been detained since December 27, according to his last visit, described his interrogation brutality, persistent beatings, critical health conditions and treatment refusals.

Last December, Amnesty International called on Israel to release all health workers detained in Gaza, including Kamal Adwan Hospital Director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, "with immediate and unconditional conditions", concerned about the fate of the doctor.

The organization added that Israel must immediately release all Palestinians detained arbitrarily, especially health workers, stressing the need for the international community to act immediately to end Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Gaza's Ministry of Health condemned the detention and torture of health workers by Israel.

In a statement issued late last year, the ministry said it was a violation of human rights and the rights of health workers.

The ministry condemned this repeated criminal act, calling for the immediate release of detained doctors and urgent interventions to ensure the release of other health workers detained in Israeli prisons.

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The ministry has also reaffirmed calls for full protection for all health workers, to ensure they can carry out their professional duties in a safe and secure environment.

Over the past year, Israeli forces have detained more than 310 health workers from various specialties, and some 1,060 health workers have died, some of whom were tortured in detention.

"The other hundreds were injured, which is a huge loss to skilled workers and expertise, and is a blow to the overall health system," the Ministry of Health said.