Palestinian medical staff in Gaza have told the BBC they were blindfolded, detained, forced to strip and repeatedly beaten by Israeli troops after a raid at their hospital last month.
Ahmed Abu Sabha, a doctor at Nasser hospital, described being held for a week in detention, where, he said, muzzled dogs were set upon him and his hand was broken by an Israeli soldier.
His account closely matches those of two other medics who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
They told the BBC they were humiliated, beaten, doused with cold water, and forced to kneel in uncomfortable positions for hours. They said they were detained for days before being released.
The BBC supplied details of their allegations to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). They did not respond directly to questions about these accounts, or deny specific claims of mistreatment. But they denied that medical staff were harmed during their operation.
They said that “any abuse of detainees is contrary to IDF orders and is therefore strictly prohibited”.
WARNING: Some readers may find details in this article distressing.
The IDF raided the hospital in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis – which was one of the few in the Strip still functioning – on 15 February, saying intelligence indicated that the hospital housed Hamas operatives.
They also said Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October had been held there – and some of the hostages themselves have publicly said they were kept at Nasser. Hamas has denied that its fighters operate inside medical facilities.
Footage secretly filmed in the hospital on 16 February, the day the medics were detained, was shared with the BBC.
It shows a row of men stripped to their underwear in front of the hospital’s emergency building, kneeling with their hands behind their heads. Medical robes are lying in front of some of them.
“Anybody who tried to move his head or make any movement got hit,” the hospital’s general manager, Dr Atef Al-Hout, told the BBC. “They left them for around two hours in this shameful position.”
The IDF told the BBC: “As a rule, during the arrest process, it is often necessary for terror suspects to hand over their clothes such that their clothes can be searched and to ensure that they are not concealing explosive vests or other weaponry.
“Clothes are not immediately returned to the detainees, due to the suspicion they may conceal means that can be used for hostile purposes (such as knives). Detainees are given back their clothes when it’s possible to do so.”
Medical staff said that they were then taken into a hospital building, beaten, and then transported to a detention facility, all while undressed.
Dr Abu Sabha, the 26-year-old newly qualified doctor and volunteer medic at Nasser, described some elements of his treatment while in detention as torture, such as making detainees stand for hours without a break. He said other punishments given to detainees included being made to lie on their stomach for prolonged periods and delaying their meals.
An expert in humanitarian law said the footage and the testimony from the medical staff interviewed by the BBC was “extremely concerning”. He said some of the accounts provided to the BBC “very clearly cross over into the category of cruel and inhumane treatment”.
Dr Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, co-director of the Centre for International Law at the University of Bristol, said: “It goes against what has for a long time been a very fundamental idea in the law that applies in armed conflict, which is that hospitals and medical staff are protected.”
“The fact that they treat nationals of the enemy side should not in any way undermine their protection,” he said.
The BBC has been investigating the hospital’s story for several weeks, speaking to doctors, nurses, pharmacists and displaced people camping in the courtyard. We have cross-checked details in these accounts.
We were given the names of 49 Nasser medical personnel said to have been detained. Of those, 26 were named by multiple sources, including medics on the ground, the Hamas-run health ministry, international groups, and the families of those missing.
The three medics who say they were detained and later released have not given their accounts publicly before. They include Dr Abu Sabha, who we interviewed twice. His story remained consistent, and we corroborated key parts of his account independently.
Families of five other medics at the hospital have told the BBC their loved ones are missing. In addition, the International Committee of the Red Cross has confirmed to the BBC that it has received dozens of phone calls from people who say family members, including medics, who were at Nasser, are now missing.
