Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: Free Forcibly Disappeared Palestinian Surgeon
On 24 March 2024, Dr. Khaled Al Serr, a 32-year-old Palestinian surgeon from the occupied Gaza Strip, was detained by the Israeli military from Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, along with other health workers. His family learned about his detention from his colleagues but since then, they have not received any information from Israeli authorities about his condition, whereabouts or grounds for his arrest. They only received scraps of information from released detainees who were held along with Dr. Khaled Al Serr, including one detainee who reported that Dr. Khaled Al Serr was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment.
As reported by Israeli human rights organisations, since 7 October 2023, and particularly since the beginning of the ground operations in the occupied Gaza Strip at the end of October, Israeli authorities have resorted to the Unlawful Combatants Law and other unspecified provisions to detain thousands of Palestinians from the occupied Gaza strip without charges or trial, preventing them from having any contact with the outside world, and holding most of them, including Dr. Khaled Al Serr, outside the protection of the law, in conditions that amount to enforced disappearance. The use of the Unlawful Combatants Law and its amendments, the denial of access to lawyers, the refusal to disclose the fate and whereabouts of those detained, the denial of the right to a fair trial and the well-documented use of torture and other ill-treatment against detained Palestinians, particularly those from the occupied Gaza Strip, are all blatant violations of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law. Torture and other ill-treatment and enforced disappearance are crimes under international law; and arbitrary detention during armed conflict and occupation is a war crime. Such acts may amount to crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population.
The detention while on duty and the enforced disappearance of health workers is part and parcels of the ongoing Israel’s attacks on the healthcare system and infrastructure in Gaza. Healthcare workers continue to endure increasingly horrific and inhumane conditions whilst caring for their patients due to military operations and the blocking of adequate medical supplies and fuel. Over-stretched beyond imagination, they are working long shifts without access to food and clean water, and often with communications blackouts. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as of 5 June, of the 36 main hospitals that used to serve over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, only 16 are partially functional, with severe limitations on the types of services they can deliver.
The enforced disappearance of Dr. Khaled Al Serr is part of the ongoing Israel’s attacks against healthcare workers and the healthcare system in Gaza. Join our campaign, take action and send your letter to the Israeli authorities for the immediate release of Dr. Khaled Al Serr and an end to the enforced disappearance of other Palestinian health workers from Gaza.