Adnan Al-Bursh, a renowned Palestinian surgeon from Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital has been killed by torture during his detention in Israeli prison.
In a joint statement, the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Committee and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said 50-year-old Al-Bursh, head of orthopaedics, died in the Israel-controlled Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank on April 19, in what has been termed “deliberate assassination.”
His body remains withheld by the Israeli authorities.
In December 2023, Al-Bursh was arrested with group of other doctors at the al-Awda Hospital near the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, while he was treating Palestinians injured in Israel’s indiscriminate assault on the besieged enclave.
UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese expressed extreme alarm at the death of a Palestinian doctor.
“I urge the diplomatic community to intervene with concrete measures to protect Palestinians. No Palestinian is safe under Israel’s occupation today,” she wrote on X.
With the killing of Al-Bursh, the death toll of medical personnel in Gaza rose to 496 since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have been waging a devastating war on Gaza, leaving more than 34,600 deaths and 77,800 injured, causing massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
Israel also continues the war despite the provisional measures issued by the ICJ, as well as despite the UN Security Council (UNSC) later issuing an immediate ceasefire resolution.
