Dr Ahmed Muhanna, the director of Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza, told Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW) that ‘doctors have been singled out as targets for detention’ and are treated with particular brutality while detained. In a video testimony, Dr Muhanna described how several of the Palestinian detainees died ‘as the […] Israeli jailers looked on’. He added that the detained healthcare workers were prevented from helping other detainees, even those injured during violent interrogations. Dr Muhanna’s own health suffered from the protracted starvation and unsanitary conditions, and he lost almost a third of his body weight while in detention.

As of today, HWW has been able to verify that 95 Palestinian healthcare workers are still being held in Israeli detention. This includes Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya – whose lawyers announced a six-month extension to his incarceration last week – and 79 other healthcare workers from Gaza. A further five healthcare workers have died or been killed while in detention, and five more are missing, their whereabouts unknown.

The detained Gazan healthcare workers include 31 nurses, 17 doctors and 14 paramedics. In a pattern consistent across the hundreds of healthcare worker detentions verified by HWW, most of the Gazan healthcare workers currently in detention were abducted by the Israeli military from their hospitals or ambulances while they were working. Testimonies collected by HWW and other organisations catalogue the torture and abuse that Palestinians endure in Israeli detention.

Taken by: Raphael Nael

Today HWW organised a joint event with Amnesty International UK to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all the detained healthcare workers currently held in appalling conditions in Israel.

Dr Rebecca Inglis, of HWW, says: ‘Israel’s continued detention of nearly one hundred healthcare workers is in clear contravention of International Humanitarian Law. We are gravely concerned for their welfare given the extensive evidence that Palestinian detainees are being tortured while in Israeli detention.’

Healthcare Workers Watch

October 20, 2025

NB: You can find a list of names and affiliations of the currently detained and missing Palestinian healthcare workers from here. For further up-to-date details on attacks against healthcare workers in Palestine, please reach out to us via email: info@healthcareworkerswatch.org

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