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The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli medical officials over the alleged torture and mistreatment of Palestinian detainees, Israeli media reported Saturday.
The Brussels-based rights group submitted the complaint to the ICC prosecutor under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported. It names the Israeli Medical Association, Health Ministry officials and medical personnel in connection with alleged abuses at the Sde Teiman military detention facility in southern Israel.
The foundation said medical personnel and officials were involved in practices that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The allegations have not been independently established in the complaint.
Complaint cites treatment of detainees at Sde Teiman
The foundation said Sde Teiman, a military base in Israel’s southern Negev desert, has been used since October 2023 to detain thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. It said those held there included civilians, among them men, women, children, older people, journalists, and health and humanitarian workers.
According to the complaint, detainees were classified as “unlawful combatants,” which the foundation described as a way to deny them basic legal protections and hold them without charge or trial.
The complaint said Israel’s Health Ministry established a medical facility at Sde Teiman shortly after Oct. 7, 2023. Medical personnel were allegedly required to sign documents placing them under military police authority rather than the army’s Medical Corps.
The group is seeking investigations into officials from Israel’s health and defense ministries, medical personnel, hospital administrators and the Israeli Medical Association. Those named include former health ministers Moshe Arbel and Uriel Buso, association chairman Zion Hagay, director general Leah Wapner and ethics board chairman Yosef Walfisch.
Allegations include shackling and procedures without adequate pain relief
The foundation said a Health Ministry directive issued on Dec. 19, 2023, required medical staff to treat detainees while they were handcuffed and blindfolded. The complaint also alleges that the directive allowed forced medical treatment without adequate safeguards.
Medical staff were allegedly instructed not to disclose their names and to sign records using only their professional titles. The foundation said this obscured individual responsibility and made it harder to document injuries.
The complaint cites accounts from Israeli medical workers and former Palestinian detainees. It says a doctor wrote to Israeli authorities in April 2024 that two detainees had undergone leg amputations within one week because of injuries caused by shackling, which the doctor reportedly described as routine at the facility.
The foundation also cited medical workers who told the Associated Press they had witnessed surgeries performed without adequate pain relief. One account described an elderly detainee screaming and shaking during leg surgery. Other workers reported that detainees were blindfolded, made to wear diapers and restrained by all four limbs to hospital beds.
The group said at least 29 detainees had died at Sde Teiman by November 2025 due to physical violence, medical neglect or both.
The complaint accuses the Israeli Medical Association of helping legitimize torture and mistreatment at the facility. The foundation said the association responded to allegations of medical complicity with general reminders about professional ethics rather than adequate investigative action, and that findings from an internal Health Ministry ethical assessment after a visit to Sde Teiman were not made public.
“Instead of investigating the allegations, leaders of the association publicly defended the medical care provided at Sde Teiman,” the foundation said.
Founded 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.
Since October 2023, Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and injured over 175,000, according to Palestinian figures.
