Palestinian Physician Known as 'Doctor of the Poor' Freed From Israeli Prison With Visible Injuries

Israeli forces freed Palestinian physician Mazen al-Rantisi, 71, from Ofer prison on Sunday, nearly four months after he was taken into custody. Images shared on social media after his release showed him looking gaunt, with a prominent red wound on his forehead.

Al-Rantisi is widely known as the "doctor of the poor." He earned the nickname by waiving fees, supplying medicines and running a clinic that became a refuge for low-income Palestinians. He was arrested on 21 June in a pre-dawn raid on his home in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

Prosecutors later indicted him over his role as chairman of the board of the Union of Health Work Committees. The Palestinian non-profit provides medical care to thousands of people every year.

According to a Haaretz report, al-Rantisi told his lawyers he had suffered physical abuse and medical neglect while held at Ofer. He said prison authorities withheld his regular medication during his first 10 days there and continue to deny him one of his medicines.

His case comes as rights monitors raise concerns about the treatment of medical staff in Israeli custody. Dr Ahmed Muhanna, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza, was released in January after 665 days in detention. He told Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW) that "doctors have been singled out as targets for detention" and face especially brutal treatment. Muhanna said he lost almost a third of his body weight in custody. He also said several Palestinian detainees died "as the […] Israeli jailers looked on," and that detained healthcare workers were barred from helping other prisoners, including those hurt during violent interrogations.

HWW says 80 Palestinian healthcare workers from Gaza and 14 from the West Bank remain in Israeli detention. Most were seized by the Israeli military from hospitals or ambulances while on duty. "Israel's continued detention of nearly one hundred healthcare workers is in clear contravention of International Humanitarian Law," said Dr Rebecca Inglis of HWW. She added that the group is gravely concerned for their welfare given extensive evidence that Palestinian detainees are being tortured.

Among those still held is Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. He was taken from the facility in December 2024 after refusing Israeli orders to evacuate it. The hospital was one of the last functioning medical sites in the Gaza Strip at the time. Abu Safiya has been held without charge since then.

A United Nations commission of inquiry said Abu Safiya has faced "continued and severe abuse," and his family and lawyer reported signs of severe torture. Physicians for Human Rights said he told his lawyer in early September that guards beat him and threatened him, warning him not to speak about his conditions. The organisation and his lawyer said guards beat him on various parts of his body, including sensitive areas, with hands, feet and batons.

Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,700 health workers and detained 364 since the start of the war. HWW reports that six healthcare workers have died or been killed in detention and five more are missing, their whereabouts unknown. The bodies of those who died have not yet been returned to their families.