Renowned Palestinian Doctor Adnan Al-Barsh Dies in Israeli Prison, Sparking Outrage – Details Revealed

Two Palestinian groups announced the death of the famous Palestinian doctor Adnan Al-Barsh in an Israeli prison, while holding Israel responsible for his death.

The Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a joint statement that the head of the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, Dr. Adnan Al-Barsh, died in Israel’s Ofer Prison, more than four months later. . he was arrested while working with a group of doctors in the prison in Al Awda Hospital, northern Gaza.

Both groups said that his death was considered a “deliberate murder,” and that his body was still being held in an Israeli prison.

The Israel Prison Service issued a statement on April 19 saying that a prisoner held for national security reasons had died in Ofer Prison, but did not provide details on the cause of death, according to the Reuters news agency. .

A spokesman for the Israeli Prison Service confirmed that the statement refers to Dr. Adnan Al-Barsh, and said that the incident is being investigated, according to Reuters.

Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes and says that their military operations are in hospitals because of the presence of firefighters. Hamas and medical teams in Gaza deny these allegations.

We spoke to the BBC’s correspondent in Gaza, Adnan Al-Bursh, who also has the same name, and he told us some of the circumstances that led to his name being similar to that of the Palestinian doctor which does not last.

Our correspondent, who is currently in Doha, says: “People used to confuse us, because we have the same name. Sometimes the patients and the staff visit him in his clinic, asking me, ‘How are you, doctor?’ So I tell them I’m not Adnan Al-Barash, it’s me Adnan, the journalist.

He said: “Even sometimes, wedding invitations from his friends would come to my house, and vice versa. He always called me ‘Abu Sharik’, meaning partners in the name.”

He continues, saying: “Adnan, my cousin and close friend, continued to practice his work as a doctor and head of the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital, but he had to leave the hospital when Israeli forces entered it and forced them to move north.”

He said: “Many people thought I was the one who died after the news of Dr. Al-Barsh’s death spread, and I received many calls from friends and relatives.”

Al-Barash received his high school diploma from Halima Al-Saadia School in Gaza. Then he traveled to Romania, where he received a bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Janš. He also received a master’s degree in political science from Al-Azhar University in Gaza.

Al-Barsh then returned from Romania, but his educational career did not stop.

Al-Barsh made a good reputation in the Arab world, so he took over the leadership of the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital, and remained one of its medical pillars.

Last November, a video clip was released, documenting the moment Dr. Adnan Al-Barsh was injured while performing surgery in the Indonesian Hospital in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Al-Barash was seen drowning in his own blood after being injured as a result of Israeli bombing targeting the hospital, while the process of treating him took place in the dark, on due to a power outage at the hospital.

The BBC’s Adnan Al-Barsh says: “Dr. Al-Barsh kept wanting to finish the job, and he went to work at the Indonesian hospital, then the Israeli forces came in and took they forced them out, and he had to evacuate the hospital again. . he was severely tortured and later killed.”

Munir Al-Bursh, Director-General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, and cousin of Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, spoke to the BBC, saying: “We were in contact with human rights institutions and lawyers to to check on Dr. Adnan, who had no news from the moment he was arrested, and the only news we got was ‘his news’.”

He said: “The Israeli forces were preventing any communication with Dr Adnan, and we were not even allowed to bring lawyers into the prison to arrest him and he said there were no doctors left in the prison, except Dr. Adnan.

Munir Al-Barsh continues, saying: “If the investigators had taken from him what they wanted, he would have been released. according to Dr. Munir, who also said that the Israeli authorities are still holding the body until now.

Regarding the time when Dr. Adnan Al-Barash was arrested, Dr. Munir, who was present at those times, says: “He was under siege in the Indonesian Hospital, but he was able for him to leave on the day of the truce, and he stayed at work until the last minute.

He continued: “The Israeli army was screaming at the top of its lungs in front of the hospital: If you don’t come down, we will knock the hospital down on your head,” according to Dr. Munir.

Dr. Mounir says: “He is the only doctor who stayed in the study for this period, and this shows that he was under torture during this period that he was focused among the doctors, because they threatened him more than once, as if he just wanted it.”

“His last words were a tribute to his family, his children, and his wife, because their house was demolished as a result of the bombing, and his family now lives in a school.”

Adnan Al-Barsh’s name topped the list of the most searched on the “X” platform after the news of his death. Many users mourned the doctor and praised him for wanting to work under the difficult conditions that surrounded him.

The last thing that Dr. Adnan Al-Barsh published on his account on the “X” platform was a photo of Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta – one of the survivors of the “Baptist Massacre”, and he wrote on: We die standing and he will not kneel…

Manar wrote: “Gaza is very sad today, and Palestine is crying for its pride, its wounds, and the healers that today Palestine lost its most skilled doctor, Dr. Adnan Al-Barsh, the son of the camp of Jabalia, who was tortured until he died. I died inside the residential prisons after being admitted to the hospital while it was still working, I lived like a hero and died like a hero. “

Hoda Naeem says: “The news of the killing of Dr. Adnan Al-Barsh in Israeli prisons came like a thunderbolt.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that “the killing of Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh in Israeli prisons raised the death toll in the health sector in Gaza from October 7 to 496.”

The Ministry said in a press release that the number of injured in the health sector reached 1,500, and that the number of prisoners rose to 309.

The ministry pointed out that “the killing of Dr. Al-Barsh is not the last crime due to the complete secrecy of the conditions of prisoners in prisons, especially those arrested from the Gaza Strip.”

In its statement, the Ministry called on “the international community and health and human rights organizations to intervene and protect prisoners in prisons from torture, terrorism and murder.” “