Gaza (Quds News Network)- The wife of renowned Palestinian doctor Adnan Al-Bursh, who was tortured and raped to death in Israeli custody after Israeli forces abducted him during the Gaza genocide, has called for the release of his body, over two years after his death.
Raped, Tortured to Death in Israeli Custody
Adnan Al-Bursh, head of the orthopaedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City who had continued to treat the wounded even when Israeli bombs fell all around him, was abducted by Israeli forces on December 19, 2023, along with other medical personnel during the military siege of Al-Awda Hospital and taken to the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility.
Four months later, on April 19, 2024, was transferred to Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank, unable to walk and eventually died, a Sky News investigation has revealed.
According to testimony collected by the Israeli human rights organization HaMoked, Al-Bursh arrived in Ofer Prison in a severely battered condition, naked from the waist down, and unable to stand. He died shortly after his arrival.
A prisoner, who says he previously knew Al-Bursh in Gaza, provided the above-mentioned details in a deposition to lawyers from HaMoked.
"In mid-April 2024, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh arrived at Section 23 in Ofer Prison. The prison guards brought Dr Adnan Al-Bursh into the section in a deplorable state. He had clearly been assaulted with injuries around his body. He was naked in the lower part of his body.”
"The prison guards threw him in the middle of the yard and left him there. Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was unable to stand up. One of the prisoners helped him and accompanied him to one of the rooms. A few minutes later, prisoners were heard screaming from the room they went into, declaring Dr Adnan Al-Bursh (was dead)."
The UN Commission of Inquiry also reported receiving confirmations that Dr. Al-Bursh had been subjected to sexual violence in Israeli detention before his death.
Sky News was told by colleagues and Dr. Al-Bursh's wife Yasmin that he was in good physical condition before his arrest.
"He was the light of my life and I lost him," Yasmin said.
"Tell Me How This Isn't Genocide?” Condemnations Pour In Following His Death
UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese called out "the racism of Western media" who are not covering the story of "a stellar surgeon. The embodiment of Palestinian ethics".
"Tell me how this isn't genocide?" American politician Sam Parker said on X.
"Palestinian doctors in Gaza, like Doctor Adnan Al Bursh, are heroes and will forever be remembered as such," said Yara Hawari.
"Return the Body of Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh”
In a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Yasmin Al-Bursh, the wife of Al-Bursh, called for pressure on Israeli occupation authorities to release his body and the bodies of other Palestinians they are holding, allowing families to exercise their right to bid farewell to their loved ones and bury them with dignity.
During the Council’s 63rd session, the wife of the doctor delivered the statement remotely from Gaza on behalf of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
Al-Bursh said that the international community’s abandonment of Palestinians by allowing Israel to commit war crimes and genocide without accountability gives it the green light to commit another crime by withholding victims’ bodies and depriving their families of their basic rights.
Al-Bursh said that Israeli occupation authorities have been holding her husband’s body for more than two and a half years, deepening the family’s psychological suffering. She noted that hundreds of other families whose loved ones’ bodies are being held by Israel share the same anguish.
Furthermore, Al-Bursh explained that the Israeli occupation is committing a compounded crime against victims’ families by denying them their humanity and their right to bid farewell, adding that Israel has used this policy for years as a tool of punishment, humiliation, and leverage.
“I’m not alone in this doubled pain and loss, which makes it impossible even to come to terms with the idea of his death and keeps the circle of grief open,” Al-Bursh said.
She explained that Israel continues to hold the bodies of more than 1,700 Palestinians killed by Israeli army fire or who died under torture in its prisons.
Al-Bursh called on the international community and the Human Rights Council’s member states to pressure the Israeli authorities to release the withheld bodies and to enable families to give them a proper burial.
