Israeli officers tortured this doctor to death and then concealed the news for months

Dina al-Rantisi remembers the last words she said to her father before he was arrested by Israeli soldiers and died in prison less than a week later.

“I was next to him,” Dina, a Palestinian resident of the Gaza Strip, told Middle East Eye.

“I couldn’t move my hands, hold him or do anything else. The occupying forces had ordered us to walk without looking left or right,” she recalls.

Dr. Iyad al-Rantisi, Dina’s father, was leaving northern Gaza with his family on November 10, heading south through the Israeli-designated “safe corridor,” when he was stopped by Israeli forces.

He was picked out of the crowd and taken away while his family was told to move on.

“I cried a lot that day,” said 19-year-old Dina. “The last words I said to him were, ‘May God protect you, my father, my love.'”

For the next seven months, 53-year-old Iyad was considered missing. Dina had no information about his whereabouts.

Their hopes of seeing him again were dashed earlier this month when it was revealed that he had died “under torture” in Israeli custody six days after his arrest.

“I couldn’t believe he died,” Dina said. “Even now I can’t comprehend that he won’t be part of my life anymore.”

At the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, Dr. Iyad, head of the maternity ward at Kamal Adwan Hospital, refused to leave Gaza City, choosing to stay with his patients and carry out his humanitarian mission.

“I want to say goodbye to him. I want to see him. I miss him so much.”

– Dina al-Rantisi, daughter of a Palestinian doctor

But after a month of heavy Israeli bombings and sieges, which included attacks on hospitals, he decided to take his family to safety.

After the operation, still in his surgical gown, he moved south with his wife, their children Ahmed (23), Dina (19) and Muhammad (15) and his older sister Ibtisam.

He took the route indicated by the Israeli forces, assuming that he would be safe, but neither that nor his recognizable medical uniform made any difference.

“Sister, come,” the soldier said when he spotted him, Dina said. That was the last time she saw her father.

Love, longing and hope

Haaretz first reported on Dr. Iyad’s death on June 18.

According to the Israeli daily, he died six days after his arrest on November 10 in an interrogation center of the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence service.

However, Israeli authorities censored news of his death for over six months and newspapers were not allowed to publish anything about it.

During all this time, Iyad’s family assumed that he was alive and hoped to see him again soon.

“My family and I waited for news and prayed day and night for his release,” Dina said. “Why did Israel put false hope in our hearts?”

Life without her father is equally exhausting as a victim of displacement, where simple things like obtaining water are a daily struggle, she added.

But what she missed most was his love.

“I filmed numerous videos with my phone and documented everything that happened to us, including all the suffering we experienced, in my diary.

“I wrote about my love, my longing and my desire for him, hoping that I could share it all with him when he was free.

For Dina, Iyad was more than a father; he was also a friend, a motivator and her close confidant.

“How can a doctor carrying out a humanitarian mission be arrested and then killed?”

– Dina al-Rantisi

“My father was not an ordinary person,” said Dina, a pharmacy student. “He took care of me since I was a child and called me ‘Doctor Dina’. He always encouraged me to excel in my studies and pursue postgraduate studies.”

Dr. Iyad’s death was a shock for the family, said Dina. But now they just wanted to see his body one last time.

“I want my father’s body. I want to say goodbye to him. I want to see him. I miss him so much.”

“I ask the international community and global organizations not to forget the prisoners and especially the doctors. How can a doctor carrying out a humanitarian mission be imprisoned and then killed?”

Doctors tortured to death

Iyad al-Rantisi is the second Palestinian doctor from the Gaza Strip to die as a result of torture in Israeli custody since October 7.

In April, well-known Palestinian surgeon and professor of orthopedic medicine, Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, was killed by torture in Israeli custody, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Association said.

In their ongoing assault on the Palestinian enclave, Israeli forces have killed at least 500 medical workers and arrested more than 310.

The devastating attack, now in its ninth month, has “deliberately” destroyed Gaza’s health system. Hospitals and clinics have been bombed and raided, and doctors have also been targeted.

As the invasion continues, an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 Palestinians have been arrested in the Gaza Strip, including women, children, the elderly, paramedics, journalists, doctors and aid workers.

The Israeli authorities have since been accused of widespread and systematic torture and mistreatment of Palestinian detainees and prisoners.

The message of the Israeli torture chambers is aimed at all of us, not just the Palestinians

Read more ”

This resulted in the deaths of around 60 Palestinians in Israeli custody, at least 40 of them from the Gaza Strip, according to a Middle East Eye count based on media reports.

About 1,500 of them have now been released and many of them have described the abuses they suffered.

These included sexual abuse, electric shocks, beatings, food and sleep deprivation, humiliation and being held in degrading positions, being urinated on, and being handcuffed for long periods of time, resulting in serious injuries that in some cases led to amputations.

Survivors report that doctors were treated more cruelly than others.

Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said he was “hurt beyond words” when he heard of the death of his colleague Dr. Iyad.

“I want to know the details of Dr Iyad’s death,” Dr Abu Safiya told MEE.

Dr. Iyad was a healthy man before his arrest and did not suffer from any illness, he said.

He added that he had learned that the 53-year-old had been “subjected to severe beatings and torture,” which had led to internal stomach bleeding that was neglected by the Israeli authorities and ultimately led to his death.

With his loss, Gaza loses another talented and dedicated doctor, Abu Safiya said, further weakening the health system.

“Dr. Iyad was known for his courtesy, morality, kindness and great commitment to his work.

“He risked his life to help patients and never thought about giving up his humanitarian duty.”