AIRO/RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters): A senior Palestinian doctor died in an Israeli prison after more than four months of detention, two Palestinian prisoner associations said, blaming Israel for his death.
The associations said in a joint statement that Adnan Al-Bursh, head of orthopedics at Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility, had been detained by Israeli forces while temporarily working at Al-Awada Hospital in north Gaza.
They called his death an “assassination” and said his body remained in Israeli custody.
The Israeli prison service issued a statement on April 19, saying that a prisoner detained for national security reasons had died in Ofer prison but giving no detail on the cause of death. A prison service spokesperson confirmed that the statement referred to Bursch, and said the incident was being investigated.
Medical groups, including the World Health Organization, have repeatedly called for a halt to attacks on Gaza healthcare workers, with more than 200 killed so far in the Gaza conflict, according to an estimate from Insecurity Insight, opens new tab, a research group that collects and analyses data on attacks on aid workers around the world.
The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement that Bursh’s death raised to 496 the number of medical sector workers who had been killed by Israel since Oct 7. It added that 1,500 others had been wounded while 309 had been arrested.
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