Israeli troops have been accused of beating and humiliating medical staff from Gaza. Three medics reported to the BBC that they were beaten, doused with cold water, stripped down, and forced to kneel for hours. They were also detained for days. Lord Cameron claimed in the House of Lords that “answers from the Israelis” were necessary and called the images and reports “very disturbing”. Furthermore, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive Sacha Deshmukh criticised the UK government for being “woefully naive”, stating that ministers needed to demand more in the face of this crisis and call for an immediate ceasefire and exertion of pressure on Israel to permit vastly scaled-up aid deliveries in addition to ending its blockade of Gaza.
The incident occurred on 15 February during an IDF raid on Nasser hospital in the southern Gazan city Khan Younis, which was one of the few functioning hospitals in the Strip. The IDF stated that intelligence indicated that the hospital housed Hamas operatives and that hostages it took from the Israeli army on 7 October were brought there. In response to Israel’s actions, Foreign Secretary David Cameron called for the IDF to be held accountable and for a full investigation to be launched into the matter. The IDF denied that the medical personnel were mistreated in the operation.
The war between Gaza and Israel began when Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, leading to more than 31,180 deaths in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The BBC was able to investigate the hospital’s story over several weeks, cross-checking accounts from doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and displaced people staying in the courtyard. The BBC was given 49 names of Nasser medical personnel detained, and 26 were named by multiple sources, such as medics on the ground, the Hamas-run health ministry, international groups, and families of the missing
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