Media reports on the mistreatment of Palestinian doctors in Israeli prisons

Employees of the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed concern about the conditions of detention of Palestinian medical workers in Israeli prisons amid reports of torture of prisoners. The Guardian reported on February 25.

"[WHO] is extremely concerned about the well-being and safety of Palestinian health workers in Israeli custody," the newspaper quotes an excerpt from the organization's statement.

The publication notes that 162 health workers from the Gaza Strip are now in the Jewish state's prisons, 20 of whom are doctors. At the same time, WHO confirmed that 297 Palestinian medical workers have been imprisoned in Israel since the beginning of the war.

Several doctors released from Israeli prisons told The Guardian that they were detained in hospitals, ambulances, checkpoints and illegally transported to the Jewish state. In local prisons, they were tortured, beaten and starved.

"There was either no food or very little. There were no personal hygiene items, soap, water, toilet and toilet paper in the cells <...> I saw people dying there," one doctor told the newspaper.

The first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian radical Hamas movement went into effect on Jan. 19. During this phase of the deal, which will last 42 days, 33 Israeli hostages and about 1,900 Palestinians are to be released. On the same day, the movement released three people in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners. After that, several more rounds of exchanges took place.

The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian movement Hamas subjected the territory of Israel to a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes.