We stand in pain and solidarity with Dr. Munir al-Bursh and his family during this difficult time, following an Israeli strike that killed his eldest son, Basir al-Bursh, on Saturday. - An Israeli drone reportedly struck Basir as he left his family’s tent in the Al-Zahra neighborhood, west of Jabalia refugee camp. Medics and family members said the strike killed Basir and seriously wounded another. Like most of the population, Dr. al-Bursh’s family has been forcibly displaced time and again, living in makeshift shelters, throughout Israel’s genocidal campaign, which destroyed their home. In December 2023, Israeli forces killed Dr. al-Bursh’s 13-year-old daughter, Jinan, and wounded him. - Basir’s killing is a stark reminder that the Israeli military has not ceased its attacks across Gaza, continuing to to kill and take the lives of Palestinian women, men, and children. According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, since October 11, 2025, Israeli forces killed 1,390 Palestinians and injured 4,801 others. - Alongside dedicated doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers, Dr. Munir al-Bursh, Director-General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, has been at the forefront of efforts to sustain Gaza’s healthcare system under conditions of immense destruction and deprivation. We have been in contact with Dr. al-Bursh for years, including until October 2023 coordinating visits by PHRI healthcare worker delegations to meet their colleagues in Gaza. Through his regular reports, Dr. al-Bursh provides vital, up-to-date information on the state of Gaza’s healthcare system: the ongoing shortages of medicines and medical supplies, and the thousands of patients waiting for urgent care that remains unavailable in Gaza. Israel’s restrictions on essential supplies and lack of access to the resources needed for reconstruction continue to prevent the genuine rehabilitation of Gaza’s healthcare system. - We stand with Dr. al-Bursh during this difficult time, and we continue to stand with Palestinian healthcare workers in Gaza and support their efforts to restore and rebuild an integrated, fully functioning Palestinian healthcare system. - Use of the photo is made in accordance with Section 27A of the Copyright Law.

After six months of repeated appeals to the Israel Prison Service (IPS), R., a prisoner with a hearing disability whose case we have been handling, finally received batteries for his hearing aid two weeks ago. His family was informed and, for a moment, felt relieved. But that relief was short-lived. The batteries last less than two weeks, and there is no assurance that they will be replaced when they run out — particularly given the IPS’s routine restrictions on Palestinian prisoners’ ability to access medical equipment and other essential supplies. With family visits banned and lawyer visits costly and difficult to arrange, R.’s family will once again be left in the dark, not knowing whether he will continue to hear or once again be cut off from the world around him. Hearing is particularly critical for incarcerated people. During roll call, for example, prisoners are forced to kneel with their heads bowed toward the floor. Looking up can expose them to beatings by prison guards. In this environment, hearing becomes a tool for survival, allowing prisoners to remain aware of what is happening around them. Over the past two years, we have handled several cases in which prisoners with hearing impairments were ordered to stand but, unable to hear the command, remained in place. R.’s case is not exceptional. PHRI’s Prisoners Department has documented numerous cases of detainees entering prison without the basic medical equipment and supplies on which they depend. These have included splints for people with nerve damage; eyeglasses needed by hundreds of prisoners; a prosthetic eye for a journalist whose eye had been removed; and protective sunglasses for an elderly blind prisoner to prevent dust from entering his eyes. The IPS largely ignores our appeals, as well as those submitted by Palestinian prisoners’ lawyers, to allow the entry of basic supplies such as eyeglasses. When we do obtain a response, it usually amounts to a statement that the prisoner has undergone an eye examination. Yet this offers little reassurance given the bureaucratic catch-22 that follows: under the IPS’s “procedures for procuring medical devices,” payment must be made before the glasses can be provided — yet at present, there is no way to make such a payment. Every step toward the goal becomes part of a frustrating Sisyphean ordeal that leads only to continued abuse. We push the boulder of bureaucracy up the hill, only to watch it roll back down to the same absurd starting point: a prisoner left with broken glasses on his face.

UPDATE 🚨 Dr. Abu Safiya: “Prison Guards Continue to Beat Me and Threaten Me to Keep Silent” Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip, who has been held by Israel without charge or trial since December 2024, reported in recent testimony that prison guards continue to abuse him. Abu Safiya told his attorney, who visited him on Sunday (August 30), that prison guards continue to assault him, punching and kicking him and beating him with batons across his body, including sensitive areas. He also reported being deliberately deprived of sleep through persistent noise and loudspeakers used throughout the night. According to Abu Safiya, he was assaulted following his previous attorney visit and warned not to speak about the conditions of his detention. His testimony comes as we pursue legal proceedings demanding that an independent physician to be permitted to examine him. The initial request was submitted to the Israel Prison Service on July 7 but has yet to be approved. At the same time, our central demand remains unchanged: the release of the 14 physicians from Gaza, including Dr. Abu Safiya, so that they can reunite with their families and resume their medical duties.

My first month as executive director of Physicians for Human Rights Israel—and the preceding year and a half as Deputy Director of Programs—taught me about the broken and the whole, the fracture and the healing, in our work. We operate in a state whose military and civil arms are invested in oppressing the Palestinian people, while much of Jewish society actively participates, condones it, or looks away. Against this backdrop lies a futile effort to carve out a 'democratic' sphere—where rights and equality can supposedly be debated—distinct from a sphere ruled by the logic of destruction and genocide. Fragmentation runs deep. It is evident in the shattering of Palestinian space and the fracturing of their healthcare system, devastating a population that needs and is entitled to its medical institutions. It also manifests in the proliferation of legal "statuses" imposed on Palestinians, enabling the incarceration of thousands, including healthcare workers, without charge, while normalizing torture camps. Fractures are widening within Israel proper as well. The state’s retreat from providing health insurance to all children without status builds a wall between kids in the very same preschool—some granted coverage and others stripped of that basic right based solely on their parents' origin. And under the same healthcare system, residents of neighboring towns receive starkly unequal medical care, both in quantity and quality, driven by structural disparities related to nationality and socioeconomic status. The broken is in spatial fragmentation and in divide-and-conquer strategies that isolate issues and communities from one another. And PHRI’s mission is to restore the whole. It begins with recognizing that what happens anywhere in this space impacts the space as a whole. It means bridging the gap between a child with status and one without, and resisting the endless splintering of the Palestinian health system. Ultimately, our mission lies in insisting on a unified, continuous, and connected existence that fosters true solidarity and mutual responsibility. I could not have wished for a finer community to lead alongside—from our staff and board, to volunteers from across the health sector and beyond, to supporters who make our work possible. Together, we hold the complete picture, of the broken and the whole. Striving for wholeness also means extending grace to one another across the PHRI community. Such grace allows us to navigate the devastating chasm between today's brokenness and a glimmer of wholeness and hold fast to its possibility—a reality in which supremacy is dismantled, justice is served, full individual and collective equality is practiced, and historical injustice is righted.

The racist slander against ICU staff at Rambam Hospital is the latest example of the unprecedented violence, discrimination, and racism that Palestinian healthcare workers in Israel have faced over the past three years. - In response to this attack, which quickly escalated into broader incitement against Palestinians working in Israel’s healthcare system, we urge Israel’s Ministry of Health, Rambam Hospital management, and medical associations to issue a clear, unequivocal, and public statement of support. - This is especially critical in light of our recent report documenting the silencing and suppression of Palestinian healthcare workers in Israel, as well as recent studies showing that, even three years after October 2023, Palestinian healthcare workers continue to experience a diminished sense of belonging and safety, alongside heightened exposure to racism, discrimination, and hostility from both colleagues and patients. - A firm response to this incident is essential, alongside long-term measures to protect healthcare workers and ensure a healthcare system that is fair, safe, and respectful for all.

Opinion | Israel's Supreme Court looks the other way as patients in Gaza suffer haaretz.com/opinion/2026-08-…

Yesterday, we filed a petition demanding that a physician acting on our behalf be allowed to visit Dr. Abu Safiya at the facility where he is being held, examine him, and assess his health condition. The petition was filed following the Israel Prison Service’s continued refusal to approve our request for such a visit. The petition draws on Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s official medical record, which was provided to us by the Israel Prison Service. The record documents an injury to his left eye, as well as complaints he made to medical staff regarding injuries to his head and chest. Due to the chest pain, he was referred for an X-ray. However, the X-ray results are not included in the medical record we received, making it impossible to determine what the examination revealed or what follow-up treatment, if any, he received. The information contained in the medical record adds to the disturbing testimonies concerning violence against Dr. Abu Safiya at the underground Rakefetdetention facility. His lawyer described finding him with injuries to his head, face, ears, and neck, struggling to breathe and sit, and on the verge of losing consciousness. Dr. Abu Safiya subsequently reported that prison guards had beaten him again and that a door had been shut on his finger, causing a hematoma. An examination by an independent medical professional is a right enshrined in international law and in the Israel Prison Service’s own regulations. In light of this, Dr. Abu Safiya’s medical history, and the severe injuries he has sustained over the past month, an examination by an external and independent physician is both essential and urgent.

Support us so we can continue operating our mobile clinic in the West Bank. ❤️‍🩹Donation Here tr.ee/nMpI7l

❤️‍🩹Support PHRI so we can continue to push back against illegal policies and provide healthcare to those who have nowhere else to turn to. A public health catastrophe is unfolding in the occupied West Bank and very few people even realize it's happening. As is so often the case, Palestinian patients are paying the price. Public hospitals and clinics are either closed or operating at minimal capacity, healthcare workers are receiving a fraction of their salaries and have led an open-ended strike, and hundreds of medicines and treatments are now wholly unavailable. The direct cause of this collapse is the Israeli government's withholding of Palestinian Authority tax revenues that have intensified since October 2023, combined with heightened settler and military violence, arbitrary movement restrictions and blocked entry of Palestinian laborers to Israel. As the director of PHRI’s occupied Palestinian territory department, together with my team, we seek to expose Israeli policies that violate Palestinians' right to health throughout the occupied territory. We refuse to turn our eyes away from the suffering of thousands of patients, whether in Gaza, where patients remain trapped without access to lifesaving care, or the West Bank, where Israeli policies have thrust the PA’s healthcare system into collapse. We insist that so long as Israel continues to control the territory and the lives of Palestinians, it remains responsible under international law for protecting their right to health. My colleagues in our Mobile Clinic department meet these needs on the ground every week. They offer medical assessments, medicine, and support to thousands of patients who literally have no other options. Donate Here > tr.ee/nMpI7l

Support us so we can continue operating our mobile clinic in the #WestBank even under these impossible circumstances ❤️‍🩹Donate Here > tr.ee/nMpI7l

As the public health system in the West Bank is nearing total collapse, PHRI's volunteer medical teams and staff remain on the ground, providing urgently needed care to patients who have nowhere else to turn. Your support will help us meet the increasing needs of West Bank patients. ❤️‍🩹Donate here > my.givingtech.org/en/fundme/…