Ruzan al-Bursh
29 May 2024
A 20-year-old student from the a-Saftawi neighborhood in Gaza City whose uncle, Dr. ‘Adnan al-Bursh, died in Israeli custody after being tortured
On Saturday morning, 7 October 2023, I was supposed to have a short exam at university. I was at home, in the a-Saftawi neighborhood, getting ready to leave for university, when the news broke about what was happening. Since then, our lives have stopped and everything has changed.
That day, my uncle, Dr. ‘Adnan al-Bursh, was at our house with his wife, Yasmin Hamadah, and their children: Yazan, 13, Yamen, 11, Tamim, 9, Alin, 7, Rakan, 4, and Kinan, 2.5. They lived in the same building as us.
My uncle was an athletic person, and we’d go swimming together in the sea every day after dawn prayers: him and me and my father and my cousin Anas al-Bursh, who’s been killed since.
That morning, Uncle ‘Adnan got a call from a-Shifaa Hospital telling him about the emergency. Uncle ‘Adnan was the chair of the hospital’s Department of Orthopedics. He was also chair of the Department of Sports Medicine, a lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine, and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. He was an educated man and a first-rate scholar. He was a kind and gentle person, and would sometimes waive payment for tests and visits because of people’s difficult financial situation.
On the eighth day of the war, Uncle ‘Adnan took his wife and children with him to the hospital, because he was worried about them. He wanted to keep them nearby.
We stayed at home and didn’t go south like the Israeli army ordered. We went through a very difficult time, especially the nights, because of the intensity of the bombings in our area. There was massive bombing all the time, and we were surrounded by rings of fire. Still, we refused to leave our home until the Israeli army invaded the area on 27 October 2023. We were besieged for three days, and then we were told we had to leave. Ambulances came and took away the residents who were still there. When we left, I was surprised to see so many soldiers and the extent of the destruction everywhere.
We moved to my grandfather’s house in the town of Jabalya. On the way, an ambulance was bombed right in front of our eyes. I think the people who were in it were killed. There were snipers on the rooftops and they were shooting at people walking on the street, killing them in front of our eyes.
During the ceasefire, in November 2023, we went back home to the a-Saftawi neighborhood to check on our house. I hoped to find it unchanged but when we arrived, we saw there was nothing left of it. It was a big shock, one of the worst days of my life. I felt my heart break and shatter with pain. The entire neighborhood was destroyed, all the houses. All the beautiful memories, my childhood memories, were gone, replaced by the very ugly sight of destruction. They flattened everything. On the way there, we still thought we might have breakfast in our home. I went back to my grandfather’s house sad and depressed.
All through the ceasefire, we hoped that the war was over. But it came back in full force. The bombings, destruction, fear and stress returned. The army started getting closer to Jabalya and surrounded a-Shifaa Hospital while Uncle ‘Adnan and his family were there. Another uncle of mine, Dr. Munir al-Bursh, was also there. We were terrified they would be killed or arrested.
Then the army ordered everyone to get out of the area again. They demanded we move to the west of Gaza City. There was a lot of bombing and artillery fire around us, and many people were killed. I have a 10-year-old brother with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair. That’s why we couldn’t go far, so we only moved to a school close to my grandfather’s house. We stayed there for only one day.
That same day, the army bombed my uncle Munir’s house and his daughter Jinan was killed. The rest of the family were injured. There was heavy bombing in our area, too, and the school was hit. It was terrifying, as if it was judgment day. Then the army entered the school. The soldiers ordered the men to stay, and the women and children up to age 16 to leave the school together. We weren’t allowed to take anything. Some of us were barefoot. Women didn’t have time to put on hijabs. We were forced to leave like that, with our hands up.
We walked to Fahed a-Sabah School. There were drones and quadcopters everywhere. The situation was horrific. We got to the school and hoped to stay there. We slept there that night, but the next day, the army fired a missile from a drone at the school and we realized it wasn’t safe to stay there.
We were displaced again. This time, we went to the Islamic University area. My father got there before us. We arrived completely exhausted. We stayed at the university for four days. There was barely any water and what little there was, was undrinkable.
Meanwhile, the army surrounded a-Shifaa Hospital, which is located in western Gaza City. Uncle ‘Adnan called my father and asked us to bring him food for his children. I went with Dad, and we managed to buy some food products at crazy prices. Then we took very dangerous roads and went into western Gaza, to an area that the army was already surrounding. It was terrifying, but we managed to get there and deliver the food to my uncle. He was exhausted and looked very different. He had a beard and long hair. I’d never seen him like that. We saw his wife and children, too. They were healthy and unharmed.
Then the western parts of Gaza were bombed, and we had to go through the terrible and humiliating experience of displacement again. This time, we moved to Jabalya Refugee Camp, and from there to the a-Sweideh area in a-Naser neighborhood. That whole time, my uncles ‘Adnan and Munir were still under siege at a-Shifaa Hospital.
It was very hard, especially for my sick brother. We had almost nothing to eat, and he needs food every two hours. All we had was barley and corn. The food looked and tasted disgusting and was hard to digest.
Then the army ordered the doctors to evacuate a-Shifaa Hospital. My uncles ‘Adnan and Munir started making their way south with their families, but in the end chose not to continue because they wanted to stay in the north and treat the wounded people. So they went back to northern Gaza on foot. An ambulance that found them gave them a ride to where we were staying.
I was very happy to see them. I thought I’d never see Uncle ‘Adnan again. After we said our hellos, Uncle ‘Adnan showered and rested for two hours. Then he left for the Indonesian Hospital, to continue fulfilling his duty as a doctor. At that time, there were a lot of massacres and many people were wounded or killed, and there was a real shortage of medical staff. Because of the difficult situation, Uncle ‘Adnan risked himself to continue doing his job as a doctor and help people in the hospitals. At that time, his family was staying with his wife’s relatives.
One day, they called from the Indonesian Hospital and told us Uncle ‘Adnan had been killed in the hospital. That turned out not to be true. He was only injured, in an incident in which many people were killed. Then the Indonesian Hospital was besieged, and Uncle ‘Adnan went to al-’Awda Hospital. Uncle Munir moved to Kamal Adwan Hospital.
We were back in Jabalya and Uncle Munir left Kamal Adwan Hospital and we all moved to a-Shifaa Hospital. We asked Uncle ‘Adnan to leave al-’Awda Hospital, but he stayed. As far as we understood from him, the army was surrounding the hospital and it was hard to get out of there.
On 18 December 2023, a doctor from al-’Awda Hospital called and told us the army had ordered all doctors over the age of 40 to go out to the hospital yard in their underwear. He said that Uncle ‘Adnan went down and was arrested. Later, we learned from nurses who were there that he was interrogated and then sent back to the ward. But then the soldiers called him down again and arrested him.
While my uncle was in prison, my father hired him a lawyer who’s an Israeli citizen. At first, the lawyer reassured us and told us not to worry and that, with God’s help, he was safe and sound. He said that Uncle ‘Adnan was put in administrative detention for 90 days and wasn’t allowed visits. After 90 days, they had a classified court hearing for him. On 21 March 2024, my father and Uncle ‘Adnan’s wife called the lawyer and asked him to try to go see Uncle ‘Adnan, but he told them he couldn’t, and that no one could enter the prison to visit him. All we knew was that Uncle ‘Adnan was in Ofer Prison and was being held under the Unlawful Combatants Law. Then, someone who was released from prison told us my uncle was not in the barracks [a nickname for the Sde Teiman facility] but in another detention facility.
Then, before it was announced on the news, my father found out Uncle ‘Adnan had died in prison. He heard it from someone who was released from detention and told him: “Adnan al-Bursh died in prison.” Dad didn’t tell anyone, he only called Uncle Munir and told him people were saying ‘Adnan died in prison. He asked him to check if the Red Cross had said anything to the Ministry of Health, but we didn’t get any such notification.
Later, it was reported that Uncle ‘Adnan was dead. Then they called Uncle Munir from the Prisoners’ Ministry and told him. There was another prisoner, Isma’il Khader, who also died. My uncle asked who told them ‘Adnan was dead, and they said the Palestinian DCO had announced there were two bodies of prisoners: ‘Adnan and Isma’il.
An Israeli organization contacted Uncle ‘Adnan’s widow and told her they had demanded an autopsy, and that a lawyer on their behalf would be present during the autopsy.
* Testimony given to B’Tselem field researcher Olfat al-Kurd on 29 May 2024