The head of orthopaedics at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital was working at the al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza in December when he and other medics were arrested by the Israeli army for, they said, “national security reasons”.
Four months later, Ofer Prison guards dragged Al-Bursh and dumped him in the prison yard, naked from the waist down, bleeding and unable to stand, according to a statement provided by Israeli human rights organisation, HaMoked.
Recognising him, some of the other prisoners carried Al-Bursh to a nearby room, and he died moments later.
Dr Al-Bursh had become a fixture in the lives of many through the video diaries he posted before his arrest.
His videos showed him with his colleagues, digging mass graves in the al-Shifa yard to bury people because Israel would not let their bodies be taken to a cemetery, operating on the injured and the dying with little or no equipment, and waiting together for the Israeli assault on a hospital where thousands had sought safety.
The assault came in mid-November when, in scenes captured by Dr Al-Bursh, the Israeli army ordered al-Shifa, its patients, staff and approximately 50,000 displaced people sheltering in the compound to vacate.
Dr Al-Bursh made his way to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza where he worked until that too came under fire in November and he moved to Al-Awda Hospital.
There he was arrested and entered a prison system that Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem describes as “Hell”.
Israel often detains healthcare workers like Dr Al-Bursh, holding them in horrific conditions for “investigation”.
Hellbound and Down 