Physicians for Human Rights Israel

03/06/2026

Dr. Morad AlKoka, an orthopedic surgeon at Al-Shifa Hospital, was detained March 19, 2024 after the Israeli army surrounded the hospital in which he had stayed overnight to treat a critical case. He remains in custody without charges or trial and has not had legal representation at any of his hearings.

During a conversation with him, Dr. AlKoka mentioned that he suffers from a herniated disc in his back that has been left untreated since his detention. He mentioned that following multiple letters to the IPS sent by PHRI that spanned over the course of a year and a half, the IPS doctor finally called him for a checkup – yet called him "a liar" and provided no medical treatment to his herniated disc. He still suffers from extreme pains that alter his day-to-day life.

Dr. AlKoka is among dozens of healthcare workers from Gaza who are being unlawfully detained by Israel and subjected to inhumane conditions and ongoing medical neglect.

Over the past two years, detained healthcare workers have reported enduring severe prison conditions, including starvation, medical neglect, violence, and torture. These conditions have led to the deaths of at least 103 detainees, including five healthcare workers from Gaza. As Gaza’s healthcare system continues to collapse under the weight of widespread destruction and critical shortages, Israel continues to detain its physicians without trial, in violation of international law.

Gaza’s healthcare system cannot recover while the physicians responsible for saving lives remain imprisoned. We call for the detention orders against these physicians to be revoked and for their immediate release, so they can reunite with their families and communities and resume their life-saving work.

It is our responsibility to demand their immediate release.

Use of the photo is made in accordance with Section 27A of the Copyright Law.

03/06/2026

Our newest position paper examines the widening gap between growing mental health needs and the limited capacity of Israel’s public healthcare system to respond. Despite a national crisis and efforts to expand services through a national mental health plan, current responses remain insufficient. The paper explores how patterns of care have emerged to address these gaps, yet fail to provide comprehensive, high-quality treatment. It also proposes measures to prevent these inadequate responses from becoming the default standard of care.

Data from Israel’s Health Maintenance Organizations reveal significant systemic failures. At Clalit Health Services, for example, 95% of patients who received medication for depression or anxiety in a primary care setting did not subsequently receive publicly funded mental health services. This suggests that medication is often being used as a substitute for unavailable mental healthcare within the public system.

Family medicine specialists play a critical role in identifying, monitoring, and initiating treatment for mental health conditions, and their accessibility and familiarity with patients can provide important support. However, when meaningful alternatives are unavailable, medication frequently becomes the only option — an inadequate substitute for specialized mental healthcare and appropriate treatment frameworks.

Testimonies from primary care physicians included in the paper reinforce these findings. Ideally, pharmacological treatment should form one component of a broader care framework that also includes psychological support. In practice, however, high patient loads and limited access to psychotherapy often mean that medication is provided on its own — a “stopgap” response, as one physician described it, “that patches over major gaps in care.”

Even pharmacological treatment delivered through primary care settings is not always provided under optimal conditions. When administered under time constraints, without sufficient training, and in the absence of psychotherapy or specialist support, medication may be ineffective or even harmful. As one physician noted: “I’ve met patients who take six or seven Oxazepam pills a day,” referring to a potent anti-anxiety medication that carries a risk of physical dependence.

This harm does not affect all segments of Israeli society equally. For populations facing exclusion and marginalization, particularly Palestinian citizens of Israel, for whom poverty and violence are well-documented drivers of poor health outcomes, the absence of adequate mental healthcare responses is felt even more acutely. Moreover, the limited services that do exist are often neither culturally nor linguistically accessible.

We call on Israel’s Ministry of Health to work toward closing these gaps, ensuring high-quality care, and systematically monitoring treatment patterns and their impacts.

🔗 Link to the position paper in the comments.

02/06/2026

Dr. Medhat Abu Tabanja, the head of the intensive care department at the Indonesian hospital, was detained on March 4, 2024 while passing through a checkpoint with his wife and children. He remains in custody without charges or trial and has not had legal representation at any of his hearings.

During a conversation with him, Dr. Abu Tabanja mentioned that in October 2025 he was informed that was set to be released only to be brought back to Prison on the same day – a week later he was brought to a court hearing in which his detention was extended for another 6 months without charge. He said that this extension was one of the hardest moments he had to go through during his detention.

Dr. Abu Tabanja is among dozens of healthcare workers from Gaza who are being unlawfully detained by Israel and subjected to inhumane conditions and ongoing medical neglect.

Over the past two years, detained healthcare workers have reported enduring severe prison conditions, including starvation, medical neglect, violence, and torture. These conditions have led to the deaths of at least 103 detainees, including five healthcare workers from Gaza. As Gaza’s healthcare system continues to collapse under the weight of widespread destruction and critical shortages, Israel continues to detain its physicians without trial, in violation of international law.

Gaza’s healthcare system cannot recover while the physicians responsible for saving lives remain imprisoned. We call for the detention orders against these physicians to be revoked and for their immediate release, so they can reunite with their families and communities and resume their life-saving work.

It is our responsibility to demand their immediate release.

Use of the photo is made in accordance with Section 27A of the Copyright Law.

02/06/2026

New Episode 🎙️

With no access to a functioning medical system, at least 18,500 patients from Gaza wait for medical evacuation by the World Health Organization. But, where to? While Israel argues the answer is third countries, PHRI is pushing for evacuation to the Palestinian hospitals in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

This episode discusses the current healthcare situation in Gaza and the urgent need to reopen the medical evacuation corridor to the West Bank. Join PHRI’s Keren Shavit and Lee Caspi for a sobering discussion about the urgency of the situation – every delay risks thousands of lives and generates untold human suffering.

🔗 Episode link in the comments.

01/06/2026

Dr. Musab Samaan, a physician at al-Aqsa Hospital, was detained on February 16, 2024, while treating patients at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. He remains in custody without charges or trial and has not had legal representation at any of his hearings.

During a conversation with him, Dr. Samaan expressed deep despair, saying all he wants is to return to his family. He reported suffering from abscesses across his body caused by a scabies outbreak in prison. Despite repeatedly requesting medical treatment, he says his pleas have been ignored by prison staff.

Dr. Samaan is among dozens of healthcare workers from Gaza who are being unlawfully detained by Israel and subjected to inhumane conditions and ongoing medical neglect.

Over the past two years, detained healthcare workers have reported enduring severe prison conditions, including starvation, medical neglect, violence, and torture. These conditions have led to the deaths of at least 103 detainees, including five healthcare workers from Gaza. As Gaza’s healthcare system continues to collapse under the weight of widespread destruction and critical shortages, Israel continues to detain its physicians without trial, in violation of international law.

Gaza’s healthcare system cannot recover while the physicians responsible for saving lives remain imprisoned. We call for the detention orders against these physicians to be revoked and for their immediate release, so they can reunite with their families and communities and resume their life-saving work.

It is our responsibility to demand their immediate release.

Use of the photo is made in accordance with Section 27A of the Copyright Law.

13/05/2026

Earlier this month, our Mobile Clinic held a women’s health day in the village of Husan, west of Bethlehem. A total of 161 women were treated across various areas of care, including triage, gynecology, neurology, family medicine, alternative medicine, and psychotherapy.
-
The village is home to around 9,000 residents, many of whom depend on agriculture or work within Israeli territories. Since October 2023, many have lost their livelihoods because of restrictions on entering Israel for work. Farmers have also been unable to tend to their land due to movement restrictions, closures, and hostilities from Israeli settlers and military forces. As a result, their economic situation has worsened considerably.
-
Although the Palestinian Ministry of Health runs a clinic in Husan, its services are limited. A general practitioner comes only once a week, and even these visits are frequently disrupted by movement restrictions that also affect healthcare workers’ ability to travel. Access to care has been further strained by an ongoing physicians’ strike in the West Bank, caused by the Palestinian Authority’s insolvency—resulting from the Israeli government’s blocking of billions of shekels belonging to the Palestinian Authority as part of a systematic economic attrition campaign.
-
As part of the field day, the Mobile Clinic also organized a lecture on women’s health, covering topics such as the anatomy of the uterus, common illnesses, and the link between diseases such as diabetes and cancer and women’s overall health.
-
Current conditions are making access to medical services in the occupied West Bank increasingly challenging. In addition to providing treatment, the Mobile Clinic’s work underscores the crucial need to protect women’s right to health amid economic hardship, movement restrictions, checkpoints, and ongoing damage to the local healthcare system.

12/05/2026

Yesterday, a lawyer on our behalf visited four physicians from Gaza currently detained at Ktzi’ot Prison: Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, Dr. Muhammad Ubaid, Dr. Murad Alkuka, and Dr. Akram Abu Odeh. All four are being held without charge.
-
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has been detained for 500 days.
Dr. Muhammad Ubaid has been detained for 540 days.
Dr. Murad Alkuka has been detained for 780 days.
Dr. Akram Abu Odeh has been detained for 900 days.
-
All four physicians reported that there has been no improvement in either the quality or quantity of the inadequate food provided in prison. One physician reported losing 35 kilograms (77 pounds) over the past two years.
-
In recent months, the physicians have also reported being brought before court hearings during which their detention was extended indefinitely, despite no charges being filed against them. Two described hearings lasting only a few minutes and taking place without legal representation. They further stated that prison guards confiscate their mattresses every morning and return them only in the evening, forcing them to sit all day on the floor or on metal bed frames.
-
Two of the physicians said they need glasses after prison guards confiscated their own, yet repeated requests for replacements have been ignored. Two others reported medical issues that remain untreated. The physicians also described recurring outbreaks of skin diseases among the prison population.
-
Hygiene conditions remain dire. They are held in severe overcrowding, provided with only a single set of clothing that they are not able to wash, and denied access to cleaning supplies.
-
Following our petition to the High Court of Justice demanding the physicians’ release from unlawful detention, the state said it would submit its response within two weeks. PHRI calls for the immediate withdrawal of the arrest warrants against these physicians, and urges local and international organizations to take action to secure their release, so they may return home and resume their life-saving work.

12/05/2026

Release the 14 gaza doctors!

Dr. Raed Mahdi, 53, is a pediatrician and the Medical Director of Al-Durra Children’s Hospital. He has been detained since December 7, 2023.

07/05/2026

Now available to watch 📹

WEBINAR | Lifeline Denied - The Urgent Need for a Medical between the occupied Palestinian territory

This conversation brings together medical, legal, and firsthand perspectives on the devastating impact of Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza, the obstruction of medical aid and patient transfers, and the urgent need to restore a sustainable medical evacuation corridor.

With: Recorded testimony from Hussain Matar (Gaza City), Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, Dr. Fadi MIzyed (Atrash), and Keren Shavit (PHRI)

Moderated by Mays Medleg (PHRI)

Watch here >>

This webinar highlights the devastating impact of Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign on Gaza’s healthcare system and the arbitrary restrictions on the entry...

06/05/2026

A New Podcast Episode Is Out!

Medical systems are meant to protect life.
They rely on visibility: documentation, communication, accountability.
But what happens when those same systems fail to interrupt harm?

In this episode, we dive into two recent publications by us — one documenting deaths and disappearances in detention, and the other exposing the erosion of medical ethics inside hospitals.

Together, they raise a difficult question:
When harm is both produced and obscured —
who is left to witness?

🎧 Listen now - Link in the comments

Medical systems are meant to protect life.They rely on visibility: documentation, communication, accountability.But what happens when those same systems fail to interrupt harm?In this episode, we dive into two recent publications by Physicians for Human Rights Israel — one documenting deaths and d...