Doctors demand justice for Palestinian doctors tortured in Israeli custody

Pressure is growing on Israel to release Dr. Khaled Alser, a highly respected Palestinian surgeon who was kidnapped by Israeli forces in a raid on Gaza's Nasser Hospital in March. Colleagues say Dr. Alser was tortured while in Israeli custody in Ofer Prison and at the notorious Sde Teiman prison camp in the Negev desert, where several Israeli soldiers have been accused of raping Palestinian prisoners. Dr. Alser is the lead author of a paper just published in the British medical journal The Lancet. Democracy Now! spoke with one of the paper's co-authors, Dr. Simon Fitzgerald, a Brooklyn-based trauma surgeon.

Simon Fitzgerald: “Our lead author, Dr. Khaled Alser, continues to be forcibly disappeared. And probably only the same week that the article was published, we learned about it through Israel Physicians for Human Rights – we were able to get a lawyer into Ofer Prison, where Dr. Khaled Alser was being held – at least at the time he was interviewed in July – and were able to get witness testimony that he was indeed abducted, abused, mistreated and basically tortured by Israeli forces.”

According to Human Rights Watch, doctors, nurses, and paramedics detained in Israel face widespread torture, including beatings, rape and sexual abuse, forced holding, prolonged shackling, blindfolding, and denial of medical care. Click here to read our response to this report.