Gaza: Doctor dies in Israeli custody after being abducted from al-Shifa Hospital, officials say
A Palestinian doctor abducted by Israeli forces from Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital has died in their custody, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday.
Ziad Mohammed al-Dalou, an internal medicine physician, is the third doctor to die in Israeli jails, where widespread torture has killed at least 60 Palestinian prisoners over the past 11 months.
Dalou was detained on 18 March from al-Shifa Hospital, along with dozens of other health workers, when Israeli forces raided the facility in a two-week-long assault.
The deadly raid decimated the hospital, which had been the largest and most equipped medical facility in the Gaza Strip. After the Israeli forces withdrew, dozens of bodies were found buried in mass graves in the hospital’s courtyards.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, Dalou was detained while performing his duties at the hospital.
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“The ministry condemns this heinous crime against Palestinian healthcare workers,” the ministry said.
“Targeting healthcare workers while performing their humanitarian duty is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”
In April, it was revealed that Adnan al-Bursh, a Palestinian surgeon and professor of orthopaedic medicine, had been killed by torture while in Israeli detention.
Bursh, who headed orthopaedic medicine at al-Shifa Hospital, was arrested in December from al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza after refusing to abandon patients wounded in Israeli bombardments.
Two months later, it was confirmed that another doctor, Iyad al-Rantisi, also died under torture by Israeli guards.
Rantisi, who was the director of the maternity department at Kamal Adwan Hospital, died shortly after he was detained by invading troops in November.
He was arrested while travelling from northern Gaza to the south with his family, wearing his scrubs, and adhering to the Israeli-designated “safe corridor”.
Israeli forces have abducted more than 300 doctors and other health personnel from across the Gaza Strip since 7 October last year.
Like thousands of other Palestinian civilians taken from Gaza, they have been forcibly disappeared and Israeli authorities have failed to disclose their whereabouts.
Former Palestinian prisoners report that Israeli forces specifically single out doctors for cruel treatment in detention, where torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners are widespread and systematic.
In addition to the arbitrary detention and torturing of doctors, Israeli forces have killed at least 1,151 healthcare workers since the war on Gaza began, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The fatalities include at least 165 doctors, 260 nurses, 300 management and support personnel, 184 health associate professionals, 76 pharmacists and 12 other health workers.
The Israeli military has also been accused of deliberately destroying Gaza’s health system through constant attacks on hospitals, ambulances and doctors. This includes air strikes, detentions and the denial of medical equipment, following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October.
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