Doctors Claim They Endured Vicious Torture From Israeli Military in New Documentary the BBC ‘Refused to Air’: ‘They Hung Me Up’
Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, Zeteo
Several Palestinian doctors and healthcare workers have claimed they endured torture at the hands of Israeli military personnel in a new documentary the BBC “refused to air.”
While Gaza: Doctors Under Attack was originally commissioned for the BBC, it never aired, despite an open letter demanding its release being signed by more than 600 industry professionals, as well as actress Susan Sarandon.
On Wednesday, the documentary was finally picked up and released by former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan’s news organization Zeteo, with Channel 4 also set to air it in the U.K.
In a statement, Hasan described the documentary as a “vital and devastating film, which has been shamefully blocked from release by the BBC for so long.”
In the documentary, Palestinian paramedic Walid Khalili tells filmmakers: “When I arrived at Sde Teiman prison, I was in a bad way, my ribs were broken. But inside, during interrogation, they would continuously beat me. I went into a room, he [Israeli interrogator] took off my boxers and put diapers on me. I was in diapers the whole time. They hung me up, everyone was hung up, blood flowing from everyone. They started torturing me, they electrocuted me.”
Khalili claimed he was told, “Say that you are Hamas,” repeatedly during the torture and that his hands were bound for the entirety of his detention.
“For the duration of my detention, my hands were bound all the time,” he said. “Some people had their hands amputated.”
Another man interviewed in the documentary, Palestinian doctor Abu Ajwa, claimed he also experienced violence from Israeli paramedics.
“Some of the paramedics, especially the doctors, were violent towards us. I experienced this myself,” he said. “On one occasion, due to the pain, I was not able to move at all. I asked for the doctor again. The doctor came and he literally told me, ‘You’re a criminal, and you have to die.'”
Healthcare workers in the documentary also claimed they were forced to grip barbed wire, made to sit in stress positions, and had their fingernails pulled out with pliers.
An anonymous Israeli doctor also appeared in the documentary, claiming to have witnessed a man “screaming” during a medical procedure, which was conducted without painkillers or consent.
“I remember at least one case where a very painful procedure was being done, and the patient got no consent. Things were not explained to him in his language, so he didn’t know what was going on,” the doctor recalled. “And to the best of my knowledge, no painkillers were administered to him around that procedure, and I was there. I saw that happening, and I saw him screaming. And I saw no one stopping it.”
He concluded, “I think that was retribution, like that was a way to inflict pain.”
The documentary opens with footage of paramedics being shot and killed by Israeli soldiers. The video was reportedly discovered on a phone that was found in a mass grave.
