I recently debated Israeli ex-historian Benny Morris on PIERS MORGAN UNCENSORED. A Palestinian doctor interviewed by Morgan before the debate stated that “I still have many of my colleagues from Nasser hospital who have been kidnapped since the beginning of the war. These doctors have never come back,” and referenced one doctor who “disappeared” and has been reportedly “tortured in Israeli jails.” Visibly outraged, the ex-historian called the doctor “a total Hamas propagandist,” and went on to assert that the allegation that “lots of doctors have been abducted and disappeared [in Gaza] is total nonsense. I know of one or two cases of doctors who have been taken to an Israeli detention center. What happened to them afterwards, I don’t know. I don’t think they have been killed. They have been under arrest for whatever reason.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4jN7IEYNOs&t=1310s
(Start at 14: 50)
Here is what HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH reported already back in August 2024:
“Israeli forces have arbitrarily detained Palestinian healthcare workers in Gaza since hostilities began in October 2023, deported them to detention facilities in Israel, and allegedly tortured and ill-treated them…. Released doctors, nurses and paramedics described … their mistreatment in Israeli custody, including humiliation, beatings, forced stress positions, prolonged cuffing and blindfolding, and denial of medical care. They also reported torture, including rape and sexual abuse by Israeli forces, denial of medical care, and poor detention conditions for the general detainee population…. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that Israeli forces have detained at least 310 Palestinian healthcare workers since October 7. Healthcare Workers Watch-Palestine, a nongovernmental organization, documented 259 detentions of healthcare workers and collected 31 accounts describing torture and other abuses by Israeli authorities, including the use of stress positions, deprivation of adequate food and water, threats of sexual violence and rape, and degrading treatment.” (ISRAEL: PALESTINIAN HEALTHCARE WORKERS TORTURED)
A detailed PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS-ISRAEL (PHRI) report published three months ago in February 2025 confirmed HRW’s findings. It observed, inter alia, that “healthcare workers in Gaza were subjected to enforced disappearance, leaving their whereabouts, conditions, and fates unknown,” and it further found that “among those who were killed are at least four Palestinian medical workers from Gaza: Dr. Adnan Al Bursh, Dr. Iyad Al Rantisi, Dr. Ziad Al Dalou, and paramedic Hamdan Abu Anaba.” (UNLAWFULLY
DETAINED, TORTURED AND STARVED: THE PLIGHT OF GAZA’S MEDICAL WORKERS IN ISRAELI CUSTODY)
It appears the ex-historian confused who was the “total propagandist.”
This post has been syndicated from Norman Finkelstein, where it was published under this address.