Palestinian Doctor Suffered a Cardiac Episode in IDF Custody

Members of Israeli security forces patrol along a busy street during a military raid in the Qalandia refugee camp, south of Ramallah, earlier this month. (Credit: AFP/ZAIN JAAFAR)

The IDF arrested Palestinian gynecologist Dr. Dima Amin at her home in Ramallah. According to her attorney, she suffered a cardiac event after soldiers forcefully tightened her handcuffs, leaving marks on her wrists that remained visible days later

By Amira Hass, reposted from Haaretz, August 22, 2026

A Palestinian doctor who suffered a cardiac event in IDF custody is still being held in a Jerusalem detention facility and questioned on suspicion of incitement through social media posts.

According to the doctor’s lawyer, there is a possibility that she suffered a heart attack, which may have been caused by IDF soldiers forcefully tightening her handcuffs. Days later, marks from the restraints, he said, were still visible on her wrists.

Dr. Dima Amin, a 55-year-old gynecologist, was arrested at her home in Ramallah in the early hours of last Tuesday. For about 36 hours, Amin’s family and her lawyer had no information about her whereabouts. When her lawyer, Mahmoud Hassan, contacted police stations to attempt to speak with her (detainees are legally entitled to consult with a lawyer), she could not be located.

After a day of fruitless searches, Hassan filed an urgent petition with the military court seeking her release, writing that the lack of information raised grave concern for her safety.

It turns out that the family’s and lawyer’s concerns were justified: Following her arrest, Amin was taken, she believes, to a military base near Ramallah, where she said soldiers forcefully and excessively tightened the handcuffs despite her concerns. She began to feel unwell and was taken to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus – doctors determined she suffered a cardiac event and underwent cardiac catheterization.

She was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday around noon, and Israel Police then took her for questioning at the West Bank’s Binyamin police station. Only then, and after the urgent petition for her release had already been filed, did the police inform Amin’s lawyer that she was being questioned and allow him to speak with her by telephone.

Israeli security forces patrol along a street during a military raid in the Qalandia refugee camp, south of Ramallah, earlier this month. Credit: AFP/ZAIN JAAFAR

Dr. Michal Feldon of Physicians for Human Rights Israel says that based on the information currently available to Amin’s lawyer and family, it is difficult to determine whether her discharge from the hospital was appropriate. “If it was a straightforward heart attack without complications, and depending also on the catheterization, sometimes patients are discharged after a day,” she told Haaretz. In other cases, she added, two or three days of hospitalization are required.

Doctors Without Borders called for Dima’s release, writing on X that she is the “latest victim in Israel’s systematic campaign of hunting down and detaining Palestinian medics.”

We are deeply disturbed by reports of the arrest of Dr Dima Mohammed Amin, a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology, from her home in the West Bank, Palestine. Dr Dima is the latest victim in Israel’s systematic campaign of hunting down and detaining Palestinian medics.

She…

— MSF International (@MSF) August 21, 2026

Two days after the heart attack, Military Judge Maj. Roi Malinger ruled that there were grounds to consider Amin a security risk, as claimed by the police investigator, and extended her detention by five days. Another hearing on extending her detention is scheduled for Monday.

At a hearing at the Ofer military court on Thursday afternoon, the police investigator said they compiled about 100 posts suspected of incitement attributed to Amin, dating from 2024 through May 2026. The judge ruled that at least some of the posts he had reviewed met the definition of incitement, noting that some included praise for Hamas and Hezbollah leaders. Thirty-eight of the posts had already been presented to Amin during questioning, while the rest had not yet been translated from Arabic.

Hassan requested that Amin be released under conditions and denied that she posed a security risk, urging the court to take into account her medical condition and noting the tightened handcuffs.

Restraint intended to cause pain or suffering is recognized as a form of torture and prohibited mistreatment under Israeli and international law.

The judge also wrote in his decision that “about her medical condition, it is presumed that the detention authorities knew how to provide the necessary care to the suspect.”

Jerusalem’s Russian Compound detention facility, where Amin is being held, is operated by the Israel Prison Service, whose conditions of detention for detainees in general, and Palestinian detainees in particular, have deteriorated considerably in recent years, according to Public Defender’s Office reports.

In response to an inquiry from Haaretz, the police and IDF issued confusing accounts about Amin’s arrest.

On Wednesday at noon, police told Haaretz that the arrest is “not known to the police,” implying that Amin was in IDF custody. That evening, the police spokesperson issued a contradicting statement in response to a separate query by Haaretz’ Jack Khoury: “[Amin] was transferred for questioning by the police following her arrest and underwent a medical examination at the hospital, where she was found fit for questioning and detention.”

This statement appears to suggest that Amin was transferred for police questioning before undergoing her medical examination at the hospital. This police response contradicts its earlier statement and the sequence of events described by Amin, and does not explain why the attorney was unable to locate her on Tuesday. It also failed to mention the heart attack and the medical treatment she had received.

The police also stated that Amin’s online activity was monitored by the IDF. On its part, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said only that Amin was in police custody, a response provided after Hassan had already spoken with his client, and did not address the heart attack she suffered while in military custody.

Amira Hass is a reporter for Haaretz.

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