On Thursday, the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz revealed atrocities committed against Palestinian prisoners from the Gaza Strip, who were arrested during the current war and transferred to various detention centers, including field ones.

An Israeli doctor working in a field hospital, during a letter he delivered last week to Army Minister Yoav Galant, the Minister of Health, and the legal advisor to the government in Tel Aviv, revealed harsh methods used against prisoners, especially in field detention centers.

According to the doctor's letter, this puts the detainees at risk, and the state itself risks breaking the law, noting that in just the last week, two detainees had their legs amputated due to an injury that started from being handcuffed, and unfortunately this has become a routine occurrence. According to his description.

He pointed out that inside the field hospital, feeding is done in abusive ways, detainees are forced to defecate in diapers, and their hands continue to be handcuffed all the time, phenomena that contradict medical and legal standards.

The doctor said in his letter: From the first days of the operation of the field hospital, until today, I have been faced with difficult ethical dilemmas, and more than that, I am writing to warn that the characteristics of the hospital’s activities do not correspond to any of the departments related to health, in accordance with the laws for the detention of illegal combatants.

He pointed out that the hospital does not receive regular supplies of medicines and medical equipment, and that all of its patients are shackled on all fours regardless of how dangerous they are, their eyes are covered and they are fed in abusive ways, and that under these circumstances and the current reality, even young and healthy patients are losing weight after About a week or two of hospitalization. like he said.

A spokesman for the Israeli army claimed that the detainees receive food according to their health needs, and that they are allowed to go to the toilets according to their medical condition, even if their movement is limited. Diapers help them do that, and tying their hands and keeping them blindfolded came within instructions issued by the Ministry of Defense. Health allows this, while a source from the Ministry said that the treatment of detainees while they were shackled began after a patient who was detained attacked members of the medical staff.

The doctor says in his letter that the hands of detainees in the field hospital are tied at all hours of the day and they are forced to remain blindfolded, and more than half of the patients there are there due to injuries that developed during detention due to the shackles that remain in their hands for a long time, which causes them serious injuries that require interventions. Repeated surgery.

The Israeli army spokesman claimed that the method of handcuffing is determined in accordance with the law, and according to an individual examination of the level of danger of each detainee with the aim of ensuring the security of the forces and the medical staff, claiming that this is done on the recommendation of the medical staff according to the detainee’s health condition, and after repeated injuries, the type of handcuffs in the hospital was changed. The guards make sure that there is space between the detainees' bodies and the handcuffs.

Haaretz learned that after a few months, the plastic handcuffs that used to bind the hands of detainees in the field hospital were replaced with metal handcuffs.

In addition to the doctor’s testimony, three sources testified in an interview with “Haaretz” that since the beginning of the war, one of the detainees had his hand amputated after he was injured due to his hands being tied with plastic handcuffs for a long period, while an Israeli military spokesman said that the incident would be investigated, and later, since there was no suspicion. Criminal case, it was decided not to open an investigation.

A source told the Hebrew newspaper that many of the detainees are in poor physical condition, and some of them were injured in battles or in the war, and sometimes their wounds were exacerbated by the prison conditions and the lack of hygiene in it, and others suffered from chronic diseases, and for several months since the beginning of the war, there were... There was a shortage of medications to treat chronic diseases in the hospital, and some detainees suffered from prolonged epileptic seizures.

According to the source, although many of the detainees suffer from medical problems, most of them are not treated in the hospital, but rather remain in tents and receive treatment by paramedics.

Sources confirm that medications for chronic diseases have increased in medicine, and that the hands of many detainees were cut off and contaminated due to the handcuffs. This is supported by photos of released detainees in Gaza, which show wounds on their hands.

The Gaza detainee camp consists of several tents in which detainees are held, and a field hospital. According to the sources, between 600 and 800 Gazans are in the newly constructed field camp, and a small number of them who need critical medical treatment are in the field hospital. , where conditions are the same as those mentioned in the doctor’s letter, and some detainees are later transferred to prisons in Israel, and others are returned to Gaza after investigation, if no reason is found to continue their detention.

According to data from the Israeli Prison Service, which was provided by the HaMoked Organization for the Protection of the Individual, the number of detainees in the prisons of the Gaza Strip on April 1 reached 849 detainees from Gaza, in addition to the detainees in the field detention center.

The field hospital is supposed to operate in the new detention center, in accordance with the amendment to the Unlawful Combatants Prison Law, which was approved by the Knesset in December, as the doctor confirmed in his letter that the hospital does not comply with the conditions stipulated in the law, including granting the right to treatment. Medical according to the health condition of inmates, their right to imprisonment in hygienic conditions and their right to have adequate sleeping arrangements that do not endanger their health or harm their dignity, as well as the right to walk for approximately two hours a day in the open air.

The doctor stated in the letter that the detainees do not receive appropriate treatment, even if they are transferred to the hospital, saying: There was no patient who was transferred to the hospital and stayed there for more than a few hours, and it happens that patients after large-scale operations, such as abdominal surgeries to remove the intestines, return. After about an hour of observation, which is carried out most hours of the day by one doctor, accompanied by a nursing team, some of whom train paramedics only, this is instead of remaining for observation in the surgical department to follow up on the case, and the existing doctor may be an orthopedic doctor or a gynecologist, and this It sometimes leads to complications and sometimes even to the death of the patient.

The doctor wrote: This behavior makes us all complicit in violating the law, and perhaps what is worse for me as a doctor is that it violates my basic commitment to patients wherever they are, and violates the oath I took when I graduated from the university 20 years ago.

An Israeli military spokesman claimed that the army and the Ministry of Health pay attention to supplying medicines and medical equipment as required to the field hospital, and patients are evacuated to official hospitals according to their medical condition and the decision in this regard is made according to professional standards only.

Israeli officials who received the doctor's letter claimed that they were taking it seriously, and were unable to confirm or deny what it said, but it is expected that an investigation will be opened into what is happening in the field hospital.

Haaretz learned that several meetings were held in recent weeks about the case, regardless of the message, while the doctor confirms that there have not yet been any fundamental changes in the nature of the work, while a committee visited the place, but it appears to have provided a legal cover for what is happening, which raises concern. . like he said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army spokesman claimed again that his forces are working in accordance with the law, and that every procedure is documented, supervised, and implemented with the utmost care to preserve the dignity of the detainees, in accordance with the principles of Israeli and international law, according to his claim. The Ministry of Health confirmed that the care provided in the field hospital complies with international rules and treaties to which Israel is committed. According to her claim.