Archiv: Physicians for Human Rights Israel (organization)


17.11.2025 - 19:00 [ Physicians for Human Rights Israel ]

Death Sentence for Palestinians in Custody | New Report and Testimonies

Our latest report reveals that over the past two years, up to August 2025, at least 94 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention facilities. Yet, the report stresses that this unprecedented figure likely represents only a portion of the full death toll. Given the Israeli military’s practice of enforced disappearances since October 2023, the actual number of deaths may be considerably higher. Moreover, since the report was completed, four more Palestinians have died in the past month alone, pushing the total close to triple digits – deaths caused by the systemic denial of medical care and the torture of Palestinians in Israeli custody. These policies persist even now, despite the ceasefire in Gaza.

The report is based on 94 documented cases between October 7, 2023, and August 2025. This unprecedented toll, together with extensive findings and evidence of deaths caused by torture and medical neglect, points to a deliberate Israeli policy of killing Palestinians in custody.

At least 46 Palestinians died in Israel Prison Service (IPS) facilities, and 52 more died in military custody.

18.10.2025 - 15:06 [ Al Jazeera ]

What we know about the torture, abuse of Palestinian prisoners by Israel

Naji Abbas, director of the prisoners and detainees department for Physicians for Human Rights Israel, said his organisation was “not surprised” at the condition of the bodies released.

“We have recorded hundreds of instances of torture and deaths in the Israeli prison system, dozens of Palestinians who have been killed, beaten to death, or have died after being refused treatment for months,” Abbas said.

One autopsy the organisation examined showed signs of violence on the body eight months after the person died, he added.

“These are documented cases of detainees’ bodies with clear signs of torture and of having been brutally restrained before death, and still it is not on every television and in every newspaper,” Abbas said.

18.09.2025 - 15:44 [ Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator for Vermont ]

It Is Genocide

Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this war with its brutal attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. Israel, as any other country, had a right to defend itself from Hamas.

But, over the last two years, Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas. Instead, it has waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people. Many legal experts have now concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The International Association of Genocide Scholars concluded that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.” The Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have reached the same conclusion, as have international groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Just yesterday, an independent commission of experts appointed by the United Nations echoed this finding. These experts concluded that: “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”

I agree.

04.08.2025 - 14:46 [ +972 Magazine ]

‘Our genocide’: Israeli rights groups abandon their restraint on Gaza

After 22 months of war, starvation, and systematic destruction, two of Israel’s leading human rights organizations have concluded that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip constitute genocide.

This finding, issued Monday in two separate reports by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) and B’Tselem, marks a rupture within Israeli civil society. Until now, Israeli human rights organizations had largely stopped short of using the term “genocide,” even as Palestinian groups, Israeli genocide and Holocaust scholars, and international bodies like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Médecins Sans Frontières adopted it months ago.

28.07.2025 - 15:08 [ Physicians for Human Rights Israel ]

DESTRUCTION OF CONDITIONS OF LIFE: A HEALTH ANALYSIS OF THE GAZA GENOCIDE

5. Conclusion

110. Taken together, the facts and arguments presented above demonstrate that Israel‘s conduct satisfies three key acts enumerated in Article II of the Genocide Convention. In our area of expertise – the right to health – the legal and moral conclusion is unavoidable. The destruction of life-sustaining systems, the cumulative patterns of destruction, the bodily and mental trauma inflicted, and the direct killing of civilians, when understood in light of the implemented policy and the public rhetoric, make clear that Israel‘s campaign in Gaza constitutes genocide under international law.

111. We thus conclude that, based on the available evidence and
the applicable legal standards under the Genocide Convention:

● Israel is committing acts under Article II(a), (b), and (c), including killing, inflicting serious bodily and mental harm, and deliberately imposing conditions of life intended to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza, in whole or in part;

● There is sufficient evidence to establish that these acts are carried out with the specific intent required by Article II.

28.07.2025 - 14:54 [ Al Jazeera ]

Israeli rights groups say Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide

Two prominent rights groups in Israel have issued reports saying Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

24.04.2025 - 23:59 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Israeli Human Rights Organizations Demand Netanyahu Open Gaza’s Crossings

For nearly two months, Israel has deliberately and openly prevented the entry of any humanitarian aid including food, water, fuel, and medical equipment into the Gaza Strip. For more than a year, four Israeli human rights organizations, Gisha, Physicians for Human Rights, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual have led a principled legal petition in the High Court, demanding that Israel meet its legal obligations under Israeli and international law to ensure unfettered and immediate aid access to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

While the petition was still under deliberation, Israel announced the closure of all crossings into Gaza imposing a complete blockade since March 2. The state did not even claim that this extreme measure was related to military needs but admitted that it was a “political security” decision.

On March 27, the High Court rejected the petition, displaying disregard for the implications of this latest state policy on the fragile humanitarian situation in Gaza. Nearly everything is scarce in the Strip: since March 18, Israel has bombarded continuously via land, air, and sea, causing thousands of deaths and injuries; issued displacement orders that forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee; and as mentioned above, blocked all entry of goods and equipment to the strip for nearly two months.

Last week, the human rights organizations sent an urgent request demanding the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Defense Minister Israel Katz, open Gaza’s crossings immediately and enable consistent and unfettered aid supply and access.

13.01.2025 - 23:48 [ Al Jazeera ]

Kamal Adwan’s Hussam Abu Safia held in Ofer Prison, rights group says

An Israeli rights group says Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital who was detained by Israeli forces during their raid on the facility in Beit Lahiya last month, is being held in a notorious Israeli military prison in the occupied West Bank.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI), said the Israeli military confirmed in an email that Abu Safia was at Ofer Prison. A lawyer for Abu Safia’s family was told that he would not be allowed to see him until January 29, said a spokesman for PHRI, Ran Yaron, according to The Associated Press.

04.01.2025 - 18:12 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Israeli Govt Pressed to Reveal Location of Detained Gaza Hospital Director

In response to an official request submitted by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) Israel on behalf of his family to arrange a lawyer’s visit for him, “Mashlat” – the body responsible for coordinating with the army regarding the location of detainees and prisoners from the occupied Gaza Strip – stated that they have no indication of his arrest or detention of the Kamal Adwan Hospital director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. Despite clear documentation of his arrest, the Israeli army officially stated on Thursday, January 3, that “it has no indication of the arrest or detention of the Kamal Adwan Hospital Director.”

01.01.2025 - 10:03 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Israel’s Supreme Court Refused to Stop the Deadly Attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza

(December 30, 2024)

Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHR) petitioned last week Israel’s Supreme Court, demanding an end to ongoing attacks on the hospital, the establishment of humanitarian corridors, and the delivery of essential supplies, and issuing an interim order to cease the attacks immediately. However, the court refused to take immediate action, leaving Kamal Adwan, its staff and patients under the deadly attacks.

20.03.2024 - 00:05 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Human Rights Organizations Petition High Court: Israel is Preventing the Supply of Humanitarian Aid to Gaza

Five Israeli human rights organizations in Israel filed on Monday, March 18, a petition calling on High Court to order the far-right government, Prime Minister, Defense Minister, and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories to enable access of all humanitarian aid, equipment and staff to Gaza, especially to the north of the Strip; to significantly increase the volume of aid to Gaza, including by opening land crossings between Gaza and Israel, and to provide for all the needs of the civilian population in keeping with Israel’s obligations as the occupying power.

This in light of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the lethal harm to civilians caused, in part, as a result of Israeli restrictions on access to aid into and throughout the Strip. The petition was filed by Gisha together with HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and Adalah.

09.02.2024 - 21:50 [ Hamoked.org ]

Israel-based civil society and human rights organizations call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the immediate release of hostages

We, the undersigned Israel-based civil society and human rights organizations, call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and demand the immediate release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip. An immediate ceasefire will prevent further loss of civilian lives and facilitate access to vital aid for Gaza to address the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe there.

09.02.2024 - 21:14 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Civil Society and Human Rights Organizations in Israel Called for a Ceasefire

Among the civil society and human rights organizations who signed the statement: Akevot – Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, Amnesty International Israel, Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights, Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, Combatants for Peace, Emek Shaveh, Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, Green Olive Collective, HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, Haqel – In Defense of Human Rights, Ir Amim, Isha L’isha Haifa Feminist Center, Jordan Valley Activists, Looking the Occupation in the Eye, Machsom Watch, Mothers Against Violence, New Profile – The Movement to Demilitarize Israeli Society, Parents Against Child Detention, Peace Now. Physicians for Human Rights PsychoActive – Mental Health Professionals for Human Rights, Rabbis for Human Rights, Rea’cha Kamocha, Social Workers for Peace and Welfare, Standing Together, This Is Not an Ulpan, Torat Tzedek, Yesh Din, Yesh Gvul and Zazim – Community Action.

12.11.2023 - 03:26 [ Physicians for Human Rights Israel ]

The Letter that Outraged Us: The Physicians‘ Letter Calling for the Destruction of Shifa Hospital in Gaza

(06.11.2023)

Dozens of Israeli physicians signed a letter urging the military to destroy the “hornet nests and the hospitals shielding them” in the Gaza Strip. The letter indicates that its authors consider the civilians in these hospitals to be legitimate targets – as if they can choose to leave; as if there’s a safe way out and another hospital able to take them in.

Following their appeal, we drafted the response letter below, undersigned by physicians and health professionals working in hospitals and in the community: (…)

No person with a conscience can remain indifferent to the massacre of civilians, including men, women, and children, carried out on October 7, 2023, by Hamas militants – the scale of which has yet to be fully revealed. However, our deep outrage must not be transformed into a carte blanche for killing civilians in the Gaza Strip, where residents are also counting the wounded and dead – certainly not when physicians are the ones demanding this. Fortunately, the letter’s signatories represent only a small minority of the health community, while the vast majority remains busy saving lives – no matter whose lives it may be.

17.10.2023 - 20:00 [ B’Tselem ]

Human Rights Organizations raise a loud and clear voice against the harming of all innocent civilians

12 October 2023

We, members of the undersigned human rights organizations in Israel, are shocked and horrified in these dreadful days.
Hamas’ horrific crimes against innocent civilians – including children, women, and the elderly – have shaken us all, and we are struggling to recover from the unbearable sights and sounds. Some of us were in the Israeli communities on the Gaza border during the assault; many of us have family, friends, and colleagues who endured and are still in the midst of the harrowing events; and we all know people who were murdered, injured, or abducted. It will take time to fully understand the implications and consequences of Hamas’ heinous attack, for which there can be no justification.

17.10.2023 - 19:50 [ Zazim.org ]

Statement by members of the human rights community in Israel

(13.10.2023)

We call for the immediate release of all hostages and an end to the bombardment of civilians in Israel and in Gaza. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach civilian populations, medical facilities and places of refuge must not be harmed, and vital resources such as water and electricity must not be cut off. The killing of additional civilians will not bring back those who were lost. Indiscriminate destruction and a siege harming innocents will not bring relief, justice, or calm.

17.10.2023 - 18:57 [ Hamoked.org ]

Announcement of human rights organizations in Israel, October 2023

(15.10.2023)

As individuals working to promote human rights and who believe in the sanctity of life, we urgently call for an end to all indiscriminate harming of civilian lives and infrastructure. We call for negotiations and all possible action to be taken to bring about the release of the hostages – while prioritizing the civilians held by Hamas. It is the only humane and rational thing to do, and it must be done now.

17.10.2023 - 18:50 [ Association for Civil Rights in Israel ]

We, Members of the Undersigned Human Rights Organizations in Israel, are Shocked and Horrified.

(15.10.2023)

Most of our teams include Israelis and Palestinians; therefore, some of us have relatives and colleagues in Gaza currently living under the ongoing assault of the Israeli military. Children, women, and the elderly are being indiscriminately attacked with nowhere to hide.

Even now – especially now – we must maintain our moral and humane position and refuse to give in to despair or the urge for vengeance. Keeping our faith in the human spirit and its inherent goodness is more vital than ever. One thing is clear: We will never surrender our belief in humanity – even now, when doing so is more challenging than ever.

17.10.2023 - 18:25 [ Physicians for Human Rights Israel ]

We are Acting on Numerous Fronts around the Clock. We Need Your Support Now

Eight days have passed since our world turned upside down and we found ourselves in the most destructive round of fighting we have witnessed in decades. Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) is acting on numerous fronts around the clock. We need your support now.

17.10.2023 - 01:00 [ Communist Party of Israel ]

Human Rights Organizations, MK Cassif Raise a Clear Voice Against the Harming of Civilians

Among the signatories to the declaration: Mothers Against Violence, Itach Ma’aki – Women Lawyers for Social Justice, Academy for Equality, Amnesty International Israel, BIMKOM – Planners for Planning Rights, B’Tselem, Gisha, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Parents Against Child Detention, Hamoked – Center for the Defence of the Individual, Zazim – Community Action, Haqel – In Defense of Human Rights, Yesh Din, Yesh Gvul, Combatants for Peace, Mehazkim, Machsom Watch, Women Wage Peace , Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, Standing Together, Ir Amim, Emek Shaveh, The Parents Circle-Families Forum, Rabbis for Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, Breaking the Silence and Torat Tzedek.