Blindfolded. Forced to undress. Beaten, repeatedly. Forced to remain standing for hours. Arrested. A maternity ward that has become something more like a “torture room”. This is what Palestinian medical staff in the Gaza Strip told the BBC they had suffered during a raid by Israeli forces in the Nasser hospital, in the city of Khan Yunis, in the south of the Palestinian enclave. It happened last month. Ahmed Abu Sabha, a 26-year-old volunteer doctor at the facility, reported being held under arrest for a week. He accused an Israeli soldier of breaking his hand. A story, reports the British network, which resembles that of two other doctors. They reported being beaten and forced to kneel for hours. That they had to endure freezing water poured over their bodies and that they were arrested for days before being released. The BBC specifies that it has investigated for weeks, that it has spoken with doctors, nurses, pharmacists and displaced people, that it has cross-checked and provided details of the complaints to the Israeli forces (IDF), which did not respond directly to questions about the stories of the doctors, nor denied the allegations of mistreatment. They denied any harm was done to medical staff in the operation. The raid on the Nasser hospital dates back to February 15th. “Abuse of detainees is against IDF orders and is therefore absolutely prohibited,” say the IDF, according to which Hamas fighters were in the hospital.
Hostages kidnapped during the October 7 attack in Israel were held captive at the facility, according to Israeli forces. Hamas, which took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, denies that its fighters operate inside health facilities. The doctors who remained at Nasser have denounced how the Israeli blitz has effectively left them unable to assist the sick.