Exchange Detained Health Care Workers for Hostages

Gaza’s health ministry says that after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, more than 300 of Gaza’s health care workers suspected of terrorist activity are in Israeli detention. Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals in Gaza as military bases. Medical workers have been detained at a higher rate than other Gazans. Family members of these detained health care workers have neither seen nor heard from them. They do not know whether these detainees are alive or dead. Perhaps these family members in Gaza will occasionally sympathize with people in Israel who have been mourning the disappearance of their family members taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7.

The detention of health care workers has weakened Gaza’s frail health care system. Amnesty International has demanded that Israel disclose the whereabouts and legal status of all Gazan health care workers who have been taken into custody, and release them unless they have been charged with a crime and given due process. Israel responded that detainees who are found to be uninvolved in terrorist activity are released. Israel can add that it will be happy to disclose the whereabouts and status of all detained medical workers as soon as Hamas discloses the same information for all the hostages. Israel can publicly challenge Hamas to strengthen Gaza’s crumbling health care system by releasing all the remaining hostages it has held since Oct. 7 in exchange for the release of all the detained health care workers.