• He says Israel held him in detention for 35 days, blindfolded, restrained and beaten
• His account is consistent with those of other detainees

AL-ARISH: His right leg heavily bandaged because of a gunshot wound, Palestinian Tamer Ossama Salem Al-Hafy lies in an Egyptian hospital recalling his ordeal in Gaza, where Israel accused him of being a terrorist.

A paramedic at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, 40-year-old Al-Hafy said he was shot below the knee by Israeli forces as he helped the injured onto stretchers after an Israeli airstrike last November.

He briefly became a patient at the same hospital before fleeing on Nov. 20 when it came under attack. His father, Ossama, had to carry him over his back as they headed for another medical center in southern Gaza.

At an Israeli military checkpoint, Al-Hafy said, soldiers accused him of being a “terrorist” and took him to a detention facility where he was blindfolded.

He said he was held for 35 days and released without charge. While in detention, he was cuffed by his arms and legs to a bed inside a tent, he added.

Reuters could not independently verify Al-Hafy’s account. Israeli authorities did not respond to a request for comment on his account.

Al-Hafy said he was blindfolded except during interrogations and received only “liquid vitamins” through a straw every three or four days as nourishment.

“I was in a prison. I had no idea where it was located,” he told Reuters at a makeshift hospital aboard a cargo ship docked in Al-Arish, an Egyptian city in the Sinai Peninsula near Gaza.

“They would uncover my eyes and put it (the blindfold) back after. I didn’t see the sun until I was released,” he said.

Al-Hafy said he was beaten and humiliated and did not receive medical care while in detention, and believes his job as a paramedic made him a target.

“The words ‘medical personnel’ and working at a hospital, that was enough for them to treat you as a suspect,” he said.

Medical groups, including the World Health Organization, have called for a halt to attacks on Gaza health care workers during Israel’s offensive, launched after Palestinian gunmen led by the Islamist militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

Israel’s military has accused fighters from Hamas and its ally, Islamic Jihad, of hiding in hospitals and using human shields, allegations they deny. The military also says it has captured fighters in medical facilities.

Reuters