“Dozens of Gaza Medical Workers Are Still Disappeared in Israeli Detention” — The Intercept, November 10, 2025
Written by Kavitha Chekuru, the article centers on the fate of Palestinian medical workers who remain imprisoned in Israeli detention, many without charge, more than two years into the war on Gaza.
The piece opens with Maha Wafi, whose husband Anis al-Astal — director of ambulance services in southern Gaza — was detained by Israeli forces in December 2023 while on an approved mission to evacuate patients. Despite the October 2025 ceasefire and the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinians, al-Astal did not come home. A colleague detained alongside him, Hamdan Anaba, died in Israeli custody; his family has been denied information about the cause of death, and his body has not been returned.
According to Healthcare Workers Watch, at least 95 Palestinian medical workers — 80 from Gaza — remain held without charge in Israeli prisons, out of more than 400 detained since October 7, 2023. The Intercept The group notes that most were taken from their place of work while actively caring for patients, and are therefore protected under international humanitarian law.
The article contrasts Wafi’s ongoing wait with the experience of Dr. Ahmed muhanna, director of Al-Awda Hospital, who was released in October 2025 after nearly two years of detention. muhanna describes brutal conditions: extreme weight loss, overcrowding, denial of medical care, psychological abuse, and beatings on the day of his release. A colleague died from an untreated chest infection after muhanna’s requests for antibiotics went unanswered.
Rights organizations, including Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Amnesty International, document systematic abuse across the Israeli prison network. The article situates individual testimonies within a broader pattern of what the UN has called the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system — described as “medicide.”