Gazans 'shackled, blindfolded' at Israel hospital

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FE Team | Published: May 21, 2024 23:32:03

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JERUSALEM, May 21 (BBC/ Reuters/AFP): Medical workers in Israel have told the BBC that Palestinian detainees from Gaza are routinely kept shackled to hospital beds, blindfolded, sometimes naked, and forced to wear nappies - a practice one medic said amounted to "torture".
A whistle-blower detailed how procedures in one military hospital were "routinely" carried out without painkillers, causing "an unacceptable amount of pain" to detainees.
Another whistle-blower said painkillers were used "selectively" and "in a very limited way" during an invasive medical procedure on a Gazan detainee in a public hospital.
He also said critically ill patients being held in makeshift military facilities were being denied proper treatment because of a reluctance by public hospitals to transfer and treat them.
One detainee, taken from Gaza for questioning by the Israeli army and later released, told the BBC his leg had to be amputated because he was denied treatment for an infected wound.
A senior doctor working inside the military hospital at the centre of the allegations denied that any amputations were the direct result of conditions there, but described the shackles and other restraints used by guards as "dehumanisation".
The Israeli army said detainees at the facility were treated "appropriately and carefully".
The two whistle-blowers the BBC spoke to were both in positions to assess the medical treatment of detainees. Both asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue among their colleagues.
Israel troops kill 7
in West Bank raid
The Palestinian health ministry said that Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians during a raid Tuesday in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where the military said troops were engaged in a counterterrorism operation.
The ministry in Ramallah said seven people had been killed and nine wounded in the raid, including two who were in critical condition.
Gazans, Hamas see false
equivalence in ICC charges
Gaza Strip residents criticised on Monday the International Criminal Court prosecutor's decision to seek the arrest of Hamas leaders, saying it falsely equated them with the Israeli leaders waging war in the Palestinian enclave since October.
Prosecutor Karim Kahn has applied for arrest warrants for Hamas' leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, the commander of the group's military wing Mohammed Deif, and its Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, as well as for Israel's prime minister and defence minister.
"The world is unjust, they see with one eye. How come they equate between us and the occupation?" said Um Samed, a mother of six displaced by the war between different neighbourhoods of Gaza City.
"Did Hamas use planes to bomb Tel Aviv? Did they kill 35,000 people and still thousands more are missing? This is insane," she told Reuters on a messaging app.
What's happening in Gaza
not genocide: Biden
US President Joe Biden strongly defended Israel on Monday, saying Israeli forces are not committing genocide in their military campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza in a rejection of criticism from pro-Palestinian protesters.
"What's happening in Gaza is not genocide. We reject that," Biden said at a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the White House.
Biden has faced protests at many of his events around the country from pro-Palestinian advocates who have labelled him "Genocide Joe" for his steadfast support for Israel.