GAZAN MEDIC ‘BEATEN AND HUMILIATED’ IN ARMY CAPTIVITY
▶ Red Crescent worker says injured colleague was pelted with stones while detained by Israeli troops
Palestinian Red Crescent worker Mohammad Salah, 42, is one of many Gazans who has faced horrors throughout the war.
For 40 days, Mr Salah has had to stay strong for his team in Jabalia, where he had set up and run northern Gaza’s only functioning medical complex, which still helps to deliver babies and treat the wounded.
“I want this war to end so I can cry,” he told The National.
“I will never forget the day we received 95 bodies and 38 critically injured people, all between the hours of 2am and 6am.”
Most of the patients died due to a lack of treatment.
On December 20, Mr Salah sensed he was in more danger than usual, and that Israeli forces were closing in on him, when he was unable to leave the Palestinian Red Crescent’s ambulance centre in Jabalia to travel to the port, as he did every day.
“I just waited for them to arrive,” he said.
He had 127 people with him, including 22 wounded. Among them were a 17-year-old boy and his co-worker, Mohammad Abu Rukbeh, who was suffering from third-degree burns on his legs and back.
Israeli forces, including tanks and snipers, surrounded the ambulance centre.
Through speakers, they repeatedly called for the head of the Red Crescent to come out.
As Mr Salah exited the building, he began to shake as snipers trained their laser sights on him.
He complied when they asked him to strip and turn around, before putting his clothes back on.
“A soldier approached me. He spoke to me in Arabic. He asked me how many people were inside,” said Mr Salah.
“I told him that I was too scared to remember. He asked me to calm down and recall. So I did.”
The soldier asked Mr Salah to order the women to come out before the troops entered the building.
“I bargained,” he said. “I told him that there was no need for violence. I told him that we were not with Hamas. That I was a civilian. That we had no weapons. I would do as they told me to, and I would tell my men to do the same.”
Slowly, the women began to leave the complex, along with some men in need of urgent treatment.
One elderly man was put into a wheelchair and taken outside, while the other men were placed in plastic handcuffs.
Mr Salah’s wounded colleague, Mr Abu Rukbeh, was put on a stretcher that had been retrieved from a storage room at the centre.
Then, the men were told to walk behind a tank to an abandoned building, with laser sights still trained on them.
“We were sworn at – things that I cannot even say over the phone,” he said, adding that the soldiers had “joked” about shooting them.
The men were then taken to a lorry and blindfolded.
“I was the first to get on board because I was at the front of the entire line,” said Mr Salah.
“I was told to sit down, with my hands now tied behind my back, and to open my legs.”
They then sat the men one in front of the other, all in the same position. Except for Mr Abu Rukbeh.
“They tossed him on board. As if to intentionally make him suffer.
“The humiliation. The swearing. The beatings. I was beaten on my head with the back of a Kalashnikov.”
The troops threw stones at Mr Abu Rukbeh, who was “screaming in agony”, Mr Salah said. The others were also beaten.
In total, eight people who had accompanied Mr Salah, including Mr Abu Rukbeh, were taken into custody by Israeli troops.
A representative for the Israeli army told The National that “individuals suspected of involvement in terrorist activity undergo field interrogations” in the Gaza Strip.
“Relevant suspects are detained and taken for further questioning,” the representative said, adding that those found “not to be taking part in terrorist activities” are then released.
The official said it was necessary for suspects to “hand over their clothes so that their clothes can be searched and to ensure that they are not concealing explosive vests or other weaponry”.
Mr Abu Rukbeh was apprehended “on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities”, the representative confirmed, adding that the Israeli army was “not familiar” with reports of troops beating him with stones.
Mr Abu Rukbeh has received medical treatment in an Israeli hospital, the representative said.
Back in Gaza, Mr Salah still bears the wounds he sustained during his detention.
Feeling that his life was in danger, he reluctantly left his team to head to a relatively safer location in the south of the enclave – Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do,” he said.
Although he is now in Rafah, Mr Salah’s heart remains with his colleagues – those detained and those who continue their work in northern Gaza.
“We will never be OK after this,” he said.
“Gaza is uninhabitable. Psychologically and physically. Nobody is OK.”