Allegations centre on a military hospital where, a whistle-blower said, painkillers were "routinely" not used in procedures.

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.

  • @OccamsTeapotEnglish
    22•6 months ago

    “Safety concerns”

    There were instances where I heard staff discuss whether detainees from Gaza should get painkillers. Or ways to perform certain procedures that can turn the treatment into punishment.

    _

    One doctor with knowledge of conditions there said prolonged cuffing to beds would cause “huge suffering, horrible suffering”, describing it as “torture” and saying patients would start to feel pain after a few hours.

    _

    So, if you put together [that] someone is undergoing an invasive procedure, which involves even incisions, and doesn’t know about that, and is blindfolded, then the line between treatment and assault thins out.”

    _

    "This period was mental and physical torture,” he said. “I can’t describe it. I was detained with two legs and now I have only one. Every now and then, I cry.”

    This is torture. The “staff in a free country” raising their “safety concerns” are whistleblowers and the IDF’s response is that (often innocent) detainees were treated “appropriately and carefully” but then when given details…

    The IDF did not respond to the specific allegations about Sufian’s treatment, but said the claims of violence towards him during his arrest or detention “were unknown and will be examined”.

    So what all of this is leading towards is… Are these the people you’re taking to the internet to defend? Are you fucking seriously doing a “bu… but the other side!!” in response to very credible accusations of torture?

    You seem to think this is all fine but the staff working there do not:

    Yoel Donchin, the anaesthesiologist, said medical staff at the field hospital sometimes gathered together to cry over the situation there. “The moment our hospital closes,” he said, “we’ll celebrate.”

    These people are the hypocrites you should be angry about and the fact that you tried to deflect onto Gazans tells me everything I need to know about you. You should be ashamed of yourself. If you can read about torture and not even acknowledge how wrong it is, and instead take to the comments to defend them, you might actually be evil.