An Israeli military court on Sunday extended the detention of Palestinian doctor Dima Amin, 55, by an additional five days over social media posts, despite her suffering a severe heart attack and undergoing cardiac catheterisation while in detention.
Israeli forces arrested Amin, a gynecologist, early last Tuesday at her home in Ramallah in the central West Bank. Her family and lawyer were not informed of her whereabouts, and contact with her was cut off for 36 hours.
According to her testimony, Amin was subjected to mistreatment during her detention after her hands were tightly restrained. The Israeli authorities refused to loosen the restraints despite her medical condition, causing her health to deteriorate and leading to a severe heart attack.
Read: Hamas says Israeli threats over kites in Gaza are justification for targeting children
She was taken to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where she underwent cardiac catheterisation. The Israeli authorities then returned her to the Binyamin interrogation centre immediately after she was discharged from hospital, despite her need for medical follow-up and care.
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) expressed deep concern over reports of the arrest of Dima Mohammed Amin, a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology, from her home in the West Bank, describing her as the latest victim of a systematic Israeli campaign to pursue and detain Palestinian medical workers.
Amin’s case comes amid the continued detention of Palestinians over social media posts and content, while the policy has faced criticism from rights groups over the widening scope of the pursuit and detention of Palestinians for expressions and posts that the Israeli authorities classify as “incitement”.
