Palestinian health ministry calls for probe into death of doctor in Israeli detention

The Palestinian health ministry on Saturday called for an international probe into the death of a prominent doctor in Israeli detention. 

Earlier this week, the Palestinian Prisoners' Society said Adnan al-Bursh, a Palestinian surgeon and professor of orthopaedic medicine, was killed by torture while in Israeli detention after he was detained from a Gaza hospital earlier this year.  

In what has been termed a "deliberate assassination", Bursh, 50, died in the Israel-controlled Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank on 19 April, according to the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee, and his body remains withheld. 

In a brief statement, the Palestinian health ministry condemned the reported killing, which it said brings the death toll of Palestinian medical staff killed by Israeli forces during its ongoing assault in Gaza to 491. 

"The Ministry of Health calls on the International Criminal Court and the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian Territory to open an immediate and urgent investigation into the crime of torture and assassination of the martyr Dr Adnan al-Barsh inside the occupation prisons, in addition to 491 martyrs from the health sector."