Israel intensifies crackdown on Palestinian health sector with arrests in West Bank
Israel carries out targeted assassinations and arrests against Palestinian health workers, while demolishing and shutting health facilities in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank as part of its ethnic cleansing policy.
Health work committees in the West Bank. Photo: PHM
The Health Work Committees, a prominent Palestinian non-governmental health and development organization operating in the occupied West Bank since 1985, was subjected to a sweeping arrest campaign by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) over the past couple of weeks.
On Sunday, June 21, the IOF stormed the headquarters of the organization in the central city of Ramallah, and shut it down under a one-year military closure order.
According to a well-informed HWC source, who spoke to BreakThrough News anonymously due to security concerns, the IOF arrested all of the organization’s board members, including its chairperson, Dr. Mazen Rantisi (71), before and after the organization’s main office was raided.
Rantisi was arrested from his home in Ramallah in the early hours of June 21. HWC’s financial director, Tayseer Abu Sharbak, was also arrested that same day from his home in Al-Am’ari refugee camp in the central city of Al-Bireh. Meanwhile, a physician, Khaled Ayash, was apprehended from the town of Biddu northwest of Jerusalem in late June.
On Wednesday, July 1, the IOF arrested other HWC staff after raiding their homes in different parts of the occupied West Bank.
The detained staff were identified as:
- Public Relations Director, Dr. Jamila Abu Dahou
- Board members: Etaf Bader, Jamila Kanaan and Myassar al-Faqih
- Accountant, Faten Hanaysheh
- And a driver known as Abu Sree
BreakThrough News learned from HWC’s unnamed source that no indictment has been issued against the arrested staff and leaders yet, and that they are still under investigation.
It is worth noting that the recent crackdown on HWC by the IOF is not the first. In June 2021, the organization was raided and shut down for six months. One month later former director, Shatha Odeh, was illegally detained in Israeli jails for 11 months and fined USD 9,000.
Odeh, who was given a 5-year suspended imprisonment sentence, was released on the condition of not providing health services to people.
The repressive campaigns against the HWC are not isolated incidents, but are part of a broader systematic crackdown on the Palestinian health sector as a whole, reflecting Israel’s ethnic cleansing policies.
Israel’s brutal crackdown on Palestinian health sector as genocidal tactic
Over the last three years, Israel has escalated its crackdown on the Palestinian health sector, deploying it as both a settler-colonial ethnic cleansing policy and a genocidal tactic.
At least 1,722 healthcare workers have been killed by the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) in Gaza since Israel began its genocidal aggression on the besieged enclave on October 7, 2023.
According to UN experts, this equates to killing an average of more than two people per day.
In many cases, Israel targeted rescue workers in their clearly marked ambulances while they were trying to reach casualties. The Hind Rajab massacre represents one of numerous crimes, during which rescuers became the victims for only trying to save the lives of other victims.
Arbitrarily arresting health workers and medics and placing them under administrative detention and inhumane conditions without charge, have been among the atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian health sector.
The case of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a pediatrician from Gaza who was arrested by Israeli forces in December 2024 during the siege on Kamal Adwan Hospital, may be the most shocking, but it is not the only one of its kind when it comes to detention incidents.
Read more: HRF urges ICC to issue warrants for 24 Israeli soldiers accused of the murder of Hind Rajab and her rescuers
More than 1,800 health facilities have been partially or completely destroyed over the same period, as per a latest report published by the the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Dr. Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, clarified that the destruction affected not only big hospitals, but also smaller primary health care centres, clinics, pharmacies and laboratories.
Read more: Israeli attacks persist on northern Gaza’s last hospitals
UN experts argue that Israel’s systematic targeting of the Palestinian health sector amounts to “medicide”. The word denotes the war crime of intentionally targeting healthcare workers and medical facilities.
The international community must not remain silent, says PHM
The People’s Health Movement (PHM) issued a statement on Tuesday, June 23, unequivocally denouncing “the arrest of Dr. Mazen Rantisi, the closure order imposed on HWC’s headquarters, and the ongoing repression targeting Palestinian health institutions and civil society organizations.
“HWC is an important part of the People’s Health Movement (PHM), and we stand in full solidarity with the organization, its staff, and the patients and communities it serves.” The statement reads.
The movement called for “the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Mazen Rantisi and all Palestinian health workers and civil society personnel arbitrarily detained.”
It also demanded “the immediate reversal of the closure order against HWC, and the protection of Palestinian health workers and healthcare institutions from attacks, harassment, and arbitrary detention.”
The PHM stressed that international accountability for violations of the right to health and attacks on healthcare under occupation should be maintained, and international solidarity with Palestinian civil society and health organizations be sustained.
“The right to health cannot exist where health workers are imprisoned, health institutions are shut down, and communities are denied access to care. The international community must not remain silent. Defending Palestinian health workers is inseparable from defending the Palestinian people’s right to health, dignity, self-determination, and freedom.” The movement emphasized.
Viva Salud warns that the crackdown on HWC would contribute to broader climate of pressure and restrictions
For its part Viva Salud strongly condemned the “worrying” measures, which the Israeli occupation authorities took against HWC and its staff.
“The arrest of two senior HWC representatives and the closure of the organization’s headquarters raise serious concerns for the future of its activities and for the continuity of services provided to Palestinian communities. These measures also contribute to a broader climate of pressure and restrictions affecting Palestinian civil society organizations and health institutions,” Viva Salud stated.
The Belgian non-governmental organization further asserted that it will continue to stand alongside HWC – as a partner – and to support its efforts “to ensure that all Palestinians can enjoy their fundamental right to health, dignity and self-determination.”
