Dr. Dima Amin is detained in Israel amid accusations of incitement and support for terrorist organizations, as global medical groups demand the suspension of the Israeli Medical Association over alleged complicity in Gaza’s healthcare collapse.
Detention and Prosecution of Palestinian Healthcare Workers
Dr. Dima Amin, a 55-year-old obstetrician-gynaecologist, was detained and later indicted for “incitement” and support for terrorist organizations by Israeli authorities, according to the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OMCT). While being transferred, she experienced a medical crisis and was hospitalized for multiple tests, including a cardiac catheterization. She was returned to interrogation as soon as her condition stabilised. The detention and sanitary conditions there were extremely poor, as reported by the OMCT.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has endured torture, such as beatings and electric shocks, along with deliberate refusal of medical treatment despite his heart condition, as UN experts noted “severe torture” in March 2026, putting his life and health at significant risk. As per his statements to a lawyer from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), Dr. Al-Rantisi has been subjected to ill-treatment, food deprivation, and medical neglect. His family reports that he suffers from several chronic illnesses and is being denied his medication.
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a collaboration between the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), condemns the ongoing arbitrary detention of Dr. Amin, Dr. Abu Safiya, and Dr. Al-Rantisi, and calls for their immediate and unconditional release. The Observatory also expresses concern over Israel’s policy of targeting Palestinian health workers as human rights defenders, many of whom are unlawfully detained and subjected to torture and other mistreatment in Gaza and throughout the occupied Palestinian territory. Detaining, prosecuting, and mistreating healthcare workers, the Israeli authorities are denying the Palestinian population access to critical medical care in Gaza and across the occupied Palestinian territory.
Global Calls for Action Against IMA
The event featured Palestinian surgeon Hussein Shomar, BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti, South African Medical Association president Mvuyisi Mzukwa, orthopaedic surgeon Swee Ang, and Professor Derek Summerfield as speakers. As per the campaign, IMA chairman Zion Hagay cited Hamas as a reason to target healthcare facilities, claiming they were being utilized as “terror bases.”
Mejrem Ahmetaj, a family doctor and member of Artsen voor Gaza in the Netherlands, stated, The IMA is not a bystander. It defends these attacks and blocks international condemnation while Palestinian healthcare is being destroyed. That is not medical neutrality. That is complicity.
Campaigners also cited Hagay as asserting that the IMA had obstructed four attempts within the World Medical Association (WMA) to censure Israel for the destruction of Palestinian healthcare facilities. Jonathan Fluxman, representing the IMA OUT! coalition, urged national medical associations to sever ties with the IMA, stating, Our Palestinian colleagues are being killed and imprisoned, where they are starved and tortured. Their hospitals have been destroyed and patients driven out or murdered. The IMA has said and done nothing about these war crimes against health workers, patients and hospitals.
The coalition reports that over 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed since October 2023, with hospitals, ambulances, and other medical facilities suffering extensive damage or destruction. All claims of torture and mistreatment must be thoroughly and fairly investigated, with those responsible being held accountable.