‘They tried to make sure I lost the use of my hands’: Palestinian surgeon detained and tortured by Israel

One of hundreds of Palestinian medics taken hostage by Israel during its assaults on Gaza’s hospitals has told of the torture he faced in detention in Israel – and of the Israeli captors’ attempts to make sure he could never resume his surgical career.

Dr Issam Abu Ajwa had been in the middle of performing surgery when Israeli troops invaded the operating room, handcuffed, blindfolded and stripped him and took him to a detention facility where he faced months of torture and abuse. After finally being released during the captive exchange, he described what he suffered – and his torturers’ tactics to try to ruin his hands:

One of the senior interrogators had given instructions that because I was a senior consultant surgeon they should work hard to make sure that I lost [the use of my
hands] and became unable to perform surgery.

We contracted scabies because we hadn’t washed or changed our clothes in six months. Your body felt like it was burning, but they wouldn’t give us treatment.

We could only drink hot water from the pipes once a day. We didn’t have shoes and they would make us stand on the asphalt with bare feet for two or three hours in 37C heat.

Abu Ajwa told how his hands were chained for hours a day to weighted boards, or he was suspended from his wrists, to try to ruin his joints, nerves and fine motor control. He is one of hundreds of medics illegally detained without charge, most of whom were beaten and tortured. Surprisingly, the Guardian newspaper covered some of the torture, but left out the information about the attempts to end his surgical career.

Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza remains in captivity despite committing no crime and supposedly being on a list of hostages to be freed last weekend. He has been put into a category that could mean indefinite detention and has suffered torture, beating and attempts to humiliate him publicly. Al-Awda hospital director Dr Ahmad al-Muhanna, who was detained without charge more than a year ago. Others, such as children’s doctor Adnan al-Bursh, have been tortured to death, along with many civilians who have been tortured to death while arbitrarily imprisoned. None of the tortured health workers have been mentioned by Keir Starmer, who instead is waging a ‘lawfare’ war on British activists and journalists who expose Israel’s crimes.

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