Rights group files ICC complaint against Israeli medical officials

The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against Israeli medical officials over the torture and mistreatment of Palestinian detainees at the Sde Teiman military facility, accusing the Health Ministry and medical association of complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Systematic mistreatment allegations

The Brussels-based rights group submitted the complaint to the ICC prosecutor under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, naming former health ministers Moshe Arbel and Uriel Buso alongside association chairman Zion Hagay, director general Leah Wapner, ethics board chairman Yosef Walfisch and other hospital administrators. Since October 2023, the Sde Teiman military base in Israel's southern Negev desert has held thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip — most of them civilians including men, women, children, older people, journalists and humanitarian workers — whom the foundation said were designated as "unlawful combatants" to deny them legal protections and justify indefinite detention without charge. According to the complaint, Israel's Health Ministry established a medical facility at the site shortly after Oct. 7, 2023, requiring personnel to sign documents placing them under military police authority rather than the army's Medical Corps.

Medical abuses and deaths

A ministry directive issued on Dec. 19, 2023, required medical staff to treat detainees while they were handcuffed and blindfolded, and permitted forced medical treatment without adequate safeguards, the foundation said. Medical staff were allegedly instructed not to disclose their names and to sign records using only professional titles, obscuring individual accountability, while workers reported detainees were blindfolded, forced to wear diapers and restrained by all four limbs to hospital beds. The foundation cited a doctor's April 2024 report that two detainees had undergone leg amputations within one week because of shackling injuries the doctor described as routine, and medical workers told the Associated Press they witnessed surgeries performed without adequate pain relief, including an elderly detainee screaming and shaking during leg surgery.

Professional complicity

The complaint accused the Israeli Medical Association of helping legitimize torture and mistreatment at the facility by responding to allegations with general reminders about professional ethics rather than sufficient investigative action. "Instead of investigating the allegations, leaders of the association publicly defended the medical care provided at Sde Teiman," the foundation said, noting that findings from an internal Health Ministry ethical assessment following a visit to the site were not publicly released. Established in February 2024 and based in Brussels, the Hind Rajab Foundation has pursued legal cases in several countries against Israeli officials and military personnel over alleged violations in Gaza, where Israel's war has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and injured over 175,000 others since October 2023.