– I was completely knocked out, says a Norwegian medical colleague – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

On Thursday last week, The Commission for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs and The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club reported that two prisoners died in prison in Israel, reports Reuters.

One of them was the doctor Adnan Al-Bursh. He was the head and surgeon of the orthopedic department at Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa hospital.

The cause of death is not known.

NRK has been in contact with the Israeli defense since Thursday, but has not received an answer to questions about al-Bursh. NRK has also sent a request to the Israeli authorities and the prison unit without receiving a response from them.

A spokesperson for the Israeli defense told Reuters that the staff at the Ofer prison in the West Bank confirmed that Bursh had died on 19 April.

https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1786037883674972218 calls on the diplomatic community to protect Palestinians after news of Bursh’s death.

– I am extremely alarmed by the information that the well-known surgeon Dr. Adnan al-Bursh has died in Israeli captivity.

Al-Bursh is said to have been arrested in December while he was working at al-Awda hospital, writes CNN.

NRK interviewed Bursh on 20 November last year. He then worked at the Indonesian hospital in the Gaza Strip.

– You cannot imagine that. There is death everywhere. It smells like death everywhere.

Bursh told NRK on the phone during an attack on the hospital.

– A close friend

– I was completely knocked out when I got the news.

Not many days after this there was any silence from him, says Norwac doctor Geir Stray Andreassen. He was always in contact with his colleague on the war strip.

– I have known Adnan for ten years. I have worked together with him. Operated with him, and had constant contact with him.

Andreassen is one of the Norwegian doctors who have been in Gaza intermittently since 7 October. The Norwegian doctor has also worked on the Gaza Strip several times in the past.

He was completely knocked out when he heard the news that Bursh had died.

– We were good friends. It’s like losing a friend.

Back in 2014, Andreassen met Bursh for the first time. He was then one of three people with whom he worked closely at al-Shifa hospital.

– He was clever, knowledgeable, very social and sociable. Very pleasant to be with and always in a good mood.

– He had a large family, and he had recently built himself a house. Everything was in place for this to go well, says the Norwac doctor.

Andreassen said that they were both very interested in sports injuries, and they talked a lot about football.

– He was a doctor for the Palestinian national team, and I myself have been a doctor for the U21s:

– It may sound strange that a doctor in Gaza is interested in sports injuries. It would probably only be war casualties down there.

Showed support for terrorist attacks

It was therefore in the transition between November and December that Bursh was arrested. According to the spokesperson for the Israeli authorities, the doctor was arrested for “national security reasons”, writes Reuters.

Following the interview in November, NRK noticed that Bursh showed support for Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October in social media.

When NRK asked Bursh if the Indonesian hospital was used as a command center for Hamas, as Israel claimed, Bursh replied:

– If Hamas were here, I wouldn’t be here.

– We didn’t discuss politics, only medicine and football, says Andreassen.

In November, Bursh was interviewed because he was a doctor at a hospital that was attacked.

In this case, he is mentioned on the basis that Bursh was a healthcare worker in a war zone.

Since the terrorist indictment on 7 October, Israel has claimed that Hamas uses hospitals and health facilities as command centres, and that this is why they are present. Hamas has always denied this.

118 health workers in prison

Andreassen returned from the Gaza Strip a few weeks ago.

– It was very difficult. The hospital had poor equipment. In the north there was much less food than in the south.

– Hospitals must be respected and protected, because their function for the population is so important. In hospitals, health personnel must save lives. Hospitals should not be a military battlefield, said Anne Bergh, secretary general of the Red Cross, earlier in April.

Since the conflict between Israel and Palestine escalated after the attack on 7 October, several hospitals have been seen out of operation following military attacks.

In April, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) pulled out of Gaza’s largest hospital, the Shifa hospital, after several weeks of fighting there.

The hospital then looked like a wasteland. Lika lay strewn in the ruins.

Israel itself claimed they killed 200 terrorists on the spot, and seized weapons and documents. They called it a successful operation.

The Palestinian Authority for Health said that 170 people were locked in the hospital without food or drink while Israel attacked the hospital.

According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) latest update from 20 April, 11 out of 36 hospitals are partially operational in the Gaza Strip.

They also say that 723 health workers have been killed in attacks and 924 health workers have been injured in attacks since 7 October.

118 health workers have been arrested or sent to prison.