Days of hell in Israeli prisons

Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia

Profession: Head of al-Shifa hospital

Detained: 22 November 2023

Released:1 July 2024

Age: 51

Many days I was tied to a chair in the interrogation room for maybe 15 hours. I was not allowed to sleep or eat or drink. They tied my arms to the chair very painfully and when they were beating me, they would put their hands or legs on my chest to bend my back.

After about a month I was transferred to Ofer camp in Ramallah. The whole transfer process was one of the worst things I remember. When you first go into a new prison, as someone from Gaza, you are subjected to a special campaign of torture and humiliation. That day there were four of us doctors – and none of us are young men and it was hard to bear it.

Frankly, no matter how long I talk about what I experienced in detention, it is only a fraction of what truly happened. I am talking about being clubbed, being beaten with rifle butts and being attacked by dogs.

Dr Issam Abu Ajwa

Profession:  General surgeon, al-Ahli Arab hospital

Detained:  17 December 2023

Released: 1 July 2024

Age: 63

In detention you would have to sleep on the floor which they covered with small, sharp rocks with your hands and legs tied and your eyes blindfolded. They would pour cold water on you and put fans on and bring powerful air conditioners. They would play loud music 24 hours a day.

In interrogations it would be dark and my hands and feet would be bound. They made me stand on my tiptoes for two or three hours and [would] then throw me to the floor and spray me with water. Then three or four guards would beat me.

After months in detention, they transferred me to Negev prison in the desert. It was summer and very hot. They locked us inside tents. We had to ask for permission to use the bathroom, but the sicks weren’t allowed to go and were told to soil themselves.

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. The food was just yoghurt and a bit of rice. I lost half my body weight. They never charged me with anything and I didn’t get to see a lawyer during seven months of imprisonment.

Dr Khaled Serr

Profession:  Surgeon, Nasser hospital in Gaza

Detained:  25 March 2024

Released: 1 October 2024

Age: 33

On 25 March we were in Nasser hospital, which had seen severe destruction after attacks by the Israeli army, when they stormed the hospital. They ordered us to evacuate through loudspeakers mounted on drones. We left the hospital, where Israeli armored vehicles and soldiers were stationed pointing their rifles and tank cannons at us.

We were ordered to completely remove our clothes and were then taken in a line to a pit that had been prepared in advance next to the hospital. All the medical staff were put in the pit [then] we were thrown into a military vehicle and taken across the border from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

Throughout this period, while we were being transferred, we were given severe, brutal beatings all over our bodies. I suffered bone fractures on my right side, which affected me greatly all the way through the first three or four months of detention. I never got any medical care.

After two or three hours we arrived at the prison. Our names and numbers were taken and we were led, with our eyes covered and our hands chained with metal handcuffs, into Sde Teiman detention camp.

I was taken to an open space surrounded by metal bars, like a warehouse. We were given a mat that was no more than half a centimeter thick and then we had to sit in the same position from 5am until 10pm. It was absolutely forbidden to speak. We were blindfolded the whole time with our hands in metal cuffs.

Dr Said Maarouf

Profession: Pediatrician, al-Ahli Arab hospital

Detained: 18 December 2023

Released: 2 February 2024

Age: 57

When the war started, I kept working. There were many injuries and disease was widespread but there were very few of us doctors. I was at the Kamal Adwan hospital and stayed there until we received orders from the Israeli army to leave the hospital. I left and went to al-Ahli hospital, which was where I was arrested.

I was arrested at my hospital along with my son, who is a medical student in the first year of university. Right from the beginning we were tortured. For 45 days I was under great oppression and was starved of food in Sde Teiman detention camp. By this point I was exhausted and sick. They didn’t give us any medical treatment. I lost 25 kilos. I couldn’t stand, eat or move.

Dr Ahmad Mhanna

Profession:  Anesthetist and intensive-care specialist

Detained:  16 December 2023

Released: Still in detention

Age:50

I was taken to a military barracks where I spent 21 days. During this period, they took me to what they called the “Disco” – an interrogation room with deafening music and freezing temperatures. I slept on gravel, wearing only a thin tracksuit. They told me I would be released that day, but instead, I was sent to Naqab prison.

There, the humiliation worsened. They insulted my family and my religion. They used to let the dog drink from a bowl of water and then pour the rest over me. I fell to the ground because my legs were shackled. They laughed and kicked me in the side.

At one point, they forced me to stand for six hours in the cold, arms raised and shackled, before interrogating me. I told them the same thing every time: “I am a doctor. I do not belong to anything else.”

Medical care was nonexistent. If I had a fever at night, they refused to give me a painkiller. Skin diseases were rampant. Fruits and vegetables were almost entirely absent. We were given a quarter of a cucumber or carrot, never more. Every day was a battle against degradation.