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sexual assault
ICC Urged to Probe Israel's Alleged Torture of Gaza Medical Workers
"The torture of Palestinian healthcare workers is a window into the much larger issue of the Israeli government's treatment of detainees generally," said one Human Rights Watch expert.
Aug 26, 2024
Palestinian medical workers' harrowing accounts of arbitrary detention and torture by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza prompted calls on Monday for a war crimes investigation by the International Criminal Court, whose chief prosecutor is already seeking to arrest Israeli and Hamas leaders for atrocities committed on and after last October 7.
Eight doctors, nurses, and paramedics formerly held by Israeltold Human Rights Watch (HRW) that they suffered "torture—including rape and sexual abuse by Israeli forces—denial of medical care, and poor detention conditions," as well as "humiliation, beatings, forced stress positions, prolonged cuffing, and blindfolding."
"The Israeli government's mistreatment of Palestinian healthcare workers has continued in the shadows and needs to immediately stop," HRW acting Middle East director Balkees Jarrah said in a statement. "The torture and other ill-treatment of doctors, nurses, and paramedics should be thoroughly investigated and appropriately punished, including by the International Criminal Court (ICC)."
"The torture of Palestinian healthcare workers is a window into the much larger issue of the Israeli government's treatment of detainees generally," Jarrah added. "Governments should publicly call on the Israeli authorities to release unlawfully detained healthcare workers and end the cruel mistreatment and nightmarish conditions for all detained Palestinians."
The medical workers interviewed by HRW provided similar accounts of being detained in Gaza before being sent to detention facilities in Israel, including the notorious Sde Teiman prison, where former prisoners and Israeli whistleblowers have described torture and other abuse including amputations due to extreme shackling. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is investigating the deaths of at least 36 Sde Teiman detainees, including one man who died after allegedly being sodomized with an electric baton.
A group of Sde Teiman guards has also been arrested in connection with an alleged gang-rape of a detainee that was caught on video. The IDF reservists' arrests sparked a violent attempt to free the suspects by a far-right mob whose members included senior Israeli government officials. Meanwhile, many Israeli leaders, media personalities, and celebrities have publicly defended the rape and torture of Palestinian prisoners.
One paramedic who was imprisoned at Sde Teiman and featured in the new HRW report said he was "suspended from a chain attached to handcuffs, electroshocked, denied medical care for broken ribs caused by beatings, and administered what he believed was a psychoactive drug before interrogations."
"It was so degrading, it was unbelievable," he said. "I was helping people as a paramedic, I never expected something like this."
Another paramedic imprisoned at Sde Teiman, 36-year-old Walid Khalili, said that when his captors removed his blindfold, he saw "dozens of detainees in diapers... suspended from the ceiling."
"He said that personnel at the facility then suspended him from a chain, so his feet were not touching the ground, dressed him in a garment and a headband that were attached to wires, and shocked him with electricity," the report states.
An ambulance driver told HRW that he saw Israeli guards beat two men to death with metal pipes while he and other Palestinians were being held in a large metal cage near the Israel-Gaza border fence.
Eyad Abed, a 50-year-old surgeon at the Indonesian Hospital, was seized by Israeli forces during the November siege and invasion of the facility. Abed said Israeli soldiers broke his ribs and tailbone during torture sessions.
"Every minute we were beaten," Abed told HRW. "I mean all over the body, on sensitive areas between the legs, the chest, the back. We were kicked all over the body and the face. They used the front of their boots which had a metal tip, then their weapons. They had lighters: One soldier tried to burn me but burned the person next to me. I told them I'm a doctor, but they didn't care."
In addition to torture, the medical workers interviewed by HRW described hellish living conditions in Israeli custody.
According to the report:
Abed, the surgeon, said the food was "horrible" and inadequate, and that he lost 22 kilograms (49 pounds) during a month and a half in detention. The bathrooms were "not even fit for animals." The mattresses and blankets were thin, and the cold nights were "unbearable." In the cells, water for toilets and for drinking was only available for one hour a day, with a "disgusting" stench emanating from the nonflushable toilets. "They gave us a bag for the garbage. We used to fill it with water and drink from it later. It smelled horrible but we had no choice," Abed said.
The new HRW report is the latest evidence of Israeli torture of Palestinian medical workers, more than 500 of whom have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets since October, according to United Nations agencies. There have been numerous reports of Israeli forces deliberately targeting medical workers.
Healthcare professionals living and working—often without pay for months—under such conditions are experiencing severe trauma.
"Several staff members told us they were simply waiting to die, and that they hoped Israel would get it over with sooner rather than later," a pair of U.S. surgeons who volunteered at Gaza European Hospital wrote earlier this month for Politico.
Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. Israeli forces have killed more than 40,400 Palestinians—mostly women and children—in Gaza since October, while wounding at least 93,500 others. At least 10,000 more Gazans are missing and believed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of buildings in the obliterated strip.
Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced by Israel's bombardment and invasion. Israel's "
complete siege" of Gaza has pushed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians over the brink of starvation; dozens of children have died due to malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of adequate medical care. Preventable diseases including measles, hepatitis, and polio are spreading, threatening not only Gazans but people in nearby countries including Israel and Egypt.
Meanwhile at the ICC—which is also located in The Hague—Prosecutor Karim Khan is
pushing the tribunal to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders, at least one of whom, former political chief Ismail Haniyeh, has been assassinated by Israel.
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'Enough Is Enough': Indian Doctors Stage Nationwide Strike After Rape, Murder of Trainee
"This is both about the Kolkata doctor who was brutalized and every woman who has faced sexual violence or harassment in the country," said one protester.
Aug 17, 2024
Indian doctors and healthcare workers on Saturday ramped up a nationwide strike in response to the rape and murder of a trainee physician in a state-run hospital in Kolkata, shutting down all hospital services except for emergency care in a bid to force action to protect women from sexual assault.
The August 9th murder of the 31-year-old doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata sparked massive demonstrations that began Monday and continued throughout the week. On Wednesday, protesters at a "Reclaim the Night" march attacked the hospital where the woman was killed. Protests also took place in cities including Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune.
Saturday's strike, which was organized by the Indian Medical Association, is set to last for 24 hours, during which all treatment in government hospitals and outpatient clinics has been canceled. The IMA
condemned the "crime of barbaric scale and the lack of safe spaces for women" in the world's most populous nation.
"This is both about the Kolkata doctor who was brutalized and every woman who has faced sexual violence or harassment in the country," one Kolkata protester toldThe Guardian. Other demonstrators in the West Bengal capital shouted slogans including, "We want justice," "Enough is enough," and "Hands that heal shouldn't bleed."
"We don't feel safe,” Antara Das, a medical student who joined the Kolkata protest, toldAl Jazeera. "If this happened inside a hospital that is second home to us, where are we safe now?"
Indian physicians called for the implementation of the Central Protection Act, a proposed law meant to shield healthcare workers from violence.
"We just want to be safe while we are doing our duty," Sapna Rani, a 27-year-old female doctor in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera.
One man has been arrested in connection with the doctor's rape and murder. According to the Indian Express, the suspect's wife filed multiple complaints with police accusing him of assault, including while she was pregnant. The suspect is reportedly a "civic volunteer" who worked closely with police.
In stark contrast to the nationwide protests, local police and the principal at the victim's medical college, Dr. Sandip Ghosh, claimed the murdered doctor, who was sleeping in the hospital's seminar hall when she was attacked, killed herself.
Ghosh then claimed that the victim—who was found bleeding from her eyes, mouth, and genitals, and who had extensive traumatic injuries to her body—was still to blame for her own death.
"It was irresponsible of the girl to go to the seminar hall alone at night," he said, according toThe Wire.
Ghosh was interrogated Saturday by India's Central Bureau of Investigation. Earlier in the week, he tendered his resignation from R.G. Kar. Instead of accepting his resignation, the government transferred him to serve as principal of Calcutta National Medical College, where students staged a protest against the move.
India Todayreported Saturday that the West Bengal government has canceled Ghosh's transfer.
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'Insane Torture': Israeli Soldiers Confirm Horrific Abuse of Palestinians at Sde Teiman
"Teeth were broken, bones were broken," said one soldier. "You notice how easy it is to lose your humanity," said another.
Aug 16, 2024
An Israeli newspaper on Friday published interviews with Israel Defense Forces reservists and medical staff who witnessed the "day-to-day torture" of Palestinian prisoners at the notorious Sde Teiman prison in the Negev Desert, where dozens of detainees have died and others were allegedly raped.
The Israelis described seeing torture and abuse of Palestinians detained in Sde Teiman, who included everyone from Hamas fighters to innocent civilians, and ranged in age from children to octogenarians.
"We said, 'It's torture.' But you don't get into it; you change the subject immediately."
"What's happening there is total dehumanization. You don't really relate to them as if they're real human beings," said one public hospital physician who worked at Sde Teiman. "In the end it's no less than torture. There are ways to administer even poor treatment, or even to torture a person, without crushing cigarettes on them."
One female former medical staffer said that "the place was totally unimaginable, I had never considered anything like it."
"My first thought was: What have I done?" she said, describing prisoners being forced to relieve themselves in diapers and take their meals through straws.
"The conditions there were described as torture," she added. "Maybe. In many senses, yes, I agree with that. Maybe even insane torture."
A 37-year-old male reservist said some of the worst abuse was committed by members of Force 100, the unit of the nine Israelis recently arrested for allegedly gang-raping a Sde Teiman prisoner.
"They took... guys aside and really laid into them," he said. "I think that each time teeth were broken, bones were broken... And there was also a dog."
Former Sde Teiman prisoners have described dogs attacking and performing "vile acts" on them.
Another IDF reservist said that "when you come to the camp, the first thing that hits you is the smell... of dozens of people who have been sitting in close quarters for more than a month in the same clothes and in insane heat."
"They let them shower for a few minutes around twice a week, but I don't remember ever seeing that they gave them a change of clothes, in any case not on my shifts," he added.
The Haaretz interviewees said that much of the abuse occurred in the open.
"It wasn't something that was done in the dark," the 37-year-old reservist said. "Everyone saw what was going on... It's not something that was done behind the back of the commander of the camp."
"Most of the guys were just fine with what was happening," he continued. "There were some who were a little bothered by it, and there were others who were bothered by it at the start and then they toed the line with the system."
"There were people who in conversations suddenly mentioned the word 'torture,'" he added. "And then we said, 'It's torture.' But you don't get into it; you change the subject immediately."
Some of those interviewed by
Haaretz expressed misgivings about what they did or saw at Sde Teiman.
"When I was there, I wrestled with myself about whether to stay on and try to do the right thing, the best I could as a moral person, or whether I should just get up and declare that I refused to take part in it," said one male reservist and student. "I came out with a heavy feeling of guilt."
Another reservist said, "The more distance I have from the place, the more my eyes have opened up."
"What most disturbed me was to see how easily and how quickly ordinary people can disconnect themselves and not see the reality right in front of their eyes when they're in the midst of a shocking human situation," he added.
There were also rare moments of mercy.
"Sometimes the military police gave the minors candy, like in the evening, before sleep," the 37-year-old reservist said. "One time a detainee started to cry. He was older, 60 years old. So the duty officer tried to speak to him and cheer him up a little."
But more often, guards were "filled with rage," said one reservist, who added that "there's a desire for revenge."
"What most disturbed me was to see how easily and how quickly ordinary people can disconnect themselves and not see the reality right in front of their eyes."
One reservist said that "there was a female officer who gave us a briefing on the day we arrived. She said, 'It will be hard for you. You'll want to pity them, but it's forbidden. Remember that they aren't people."
"You notice how easy it is to lose your humanity in a second, how easy it is to come up with justifications for treating people as if they're not people," he added.
One 27-year-old female reservist said that upon arriving at Sde Teiman—where she was welcomed with popcorn and cotton candy—she was alarmed to find that "good people whom I know talked about being cruel and abusive to people, like they were talking about something routine."
"The dehumanization frightened me," she said. "I couldn't understand how a group of young people who were around me every day underwent such a dangerous process in such a short time."
Another reservist said that some Sde Teiman staff—especially the volunteers—were "sadists" who "really enjoy beating up Arabs."
The
Haaretz interviews add to a growing body of evidence of torture and other war crimes perpetrated by Israelis against Palestinian prisoners at Sde Teiman and other lockups.
Former Palestinian detainees and Israeli personnel have described beatings, rape and sexual torture by male and female soldiers, routine amputations due to constant shackling, burnings, electrocutions, attacks by dogs, ice-water dousings, denial of food and water, sleep deprivation, constant loud music, and other abuse.
The Israeli military is investigating the deaths of at least 36 Sde Teiman detainees, including one who died after allegedly being sodomized with an electric baton.
On Friday, Alice Jill Edwards, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, said that "there are no circumstances in which sexual torture or sexualized inhuman and degrading treatment can be justified."
"I am troubled by recent attempts by Israeli citizens—including reportedly one member of Parliament—to intervene violently after the arrests of soldiers on these abuse charges," she said of the recent storming of Sde Teiman and another base by a far-right mob in response to the arrests of the alleged rapists.
"Criminal proceedings into all allegations must proceed unhindered," Edwards added. "No one is above the law. No one is immune from prosecution for torture."
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