Seriously wounded IDF soldier mistreated by Arab hospital staffers, family alleges

Israel’s defense chief orders probe of alleged mistreatment of wounded IDF soldier by Arab hospital staffers.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday ordered the IDF to urgently investigate allegations that soldiers seriously wounded in Lebanon received improper treatment at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, after the family of one of the servicemen accused Arab hospital staff members of leaving him without assistance and handling him roughly.

Katz instructed the military to conduct a thorough inquiry together with the relevant authorities and present its findings to him. He said any staff members found to have mistreated wounded soldiers should face appropriate action.

“I view with great severity the testimonies that have been published regarding the conduct toward wounded IDF soldiers at the hospital,” Katz said.

“The heroic IDF soldiers who were wounded while defending the State of Israel deserve the most devoted and best treatment, and respectful treatment for them and their families,” he added.

Katz said he had instructed the IDF to “immediately and thoroughly” examine the allegations and warned that if serious misconduct was established, “it will not be allowed to pass without a response.”

“We will demand answers, draw conclusions and act to ensure that such an incident does not happen again,” he said.

The investigation was ordered after Yehoshua Shani, whose son Capt. Uri Mordechai Shani was murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, publicized allegations concerning the treatment of his nephew Eitan, one of four soldiers seriously wounded in southern Lebanon last week.

The four soldiers were wounded August 5 when a reservist force from the 55th Paratroopers Brigade entered a booby-trapped building in the southern Lebanese village of Majdal Zoun. Maj. Harel Birenstock, a company commander in the brigade’s 2855th Battalion, and Master Sgt. Tamir Vaknin, a combat medic in the same battalion, were killed in the blast.

All four wounded soldiers were evacuated by helicopter to Rambam in serious condition. By the following day, their conditions had stabilized, and one had been removed from mechanical ventilation and was conscious and speaking with relatives, according to Dr. Assaf Miller, who heads Rambam’s intensive care system.

Shani said his nephew had initially been sedated and ventilated and had suffered burns across his body. According to Shani, Eitan regained consciousness Saturday afternoon while suffering from pain, fever and hallucinations.

“Then night came,” Shani wrote.

According to the family, a new nursing shift made up entirely of Arabs came on duty. At some point, relatives of the four wounded soldiers were told to leave the intensive care unit and its doors were locked.

Shani said the situation alarmed the families.

“Four seriously wounded IDF soldiers, who had just returned from fighting in Lebanon, were left alone behind locked doors, without their families, while the entire staff on the shift were Arabic speakers,” he wrote.

Shani stressed that he was not alleging that Arab medical workers posed a danger simply because of their background.

“I am not claiming that every Arabic-speaking staff member constitutes a danger. Certainly not,” he wrote.

But he said the combination of the soldiers’ condition, the ongoing war and the exclusion of their relatives created “difficult questions and a sense of insecurity” for their families.

The relatives repeatedly asked to briefly enter the ward to check on Eitan, according to Shani, but were refused.

Eventually Eitan’s brother, David, forced his way through the door because he wanted to see his brother personally. David later published his own account of the episode.

What he says he found prompted the family’s accusations.

According to Shani, Eitan was asking for water and there was no staff member beside him at that moment to respond.

“A soldier who was seriously wounded in Lebanon. Only hours earlier he woke up from sedation and ventilation. Suffering from burns, pain, fever and hallucinations. Begging for water,” Shani wrote.

He said Eitan then told his brother that staff members had handled him harshly while turning him in his hospital bed.

According to the family, Eitan said he had been turned “like a sardine” and that his head struck the bed.

“These are things Eitan himself told his brother,” Shani wrote. “I am not prepared to simply move on from them.”

The allegations have not yet been established by an official investigation, and the circumstances surrounding the medical care — including whether there were clinical reasons for restricting water or family access — remain to be determined.

Shani also complained that hospital security was called after Eitan’s brother entered the closed ward rather than, in the family’s view, staff immediately addressing his concerns over Eitan’s condition.

He said the family also attempted to obtain help from RAM 2, the IDF unit that assists hospitalized soldiers, but could not find a military representative immediately available to them.

Shani contrasted the situation with security arrangements for hospitalized security prisoners, arguing that the military has a continuing obligation to protect and assist wounded troops after they reach civilian hospitals.

“The IDF’s responsibility toward them does not end the moment the helicopter arrives at the hospital,” he wrote. “The IDF must make sure they are protected, cared for and that there is a military address available to the family.”

As of Sunday morning, no substantive public response from Rambam addressing the family’s specific allegations had been issued.

Shani demanded that authorities act before potential evidence is lost.

“I expect an investigation and answers,” Shani wrote. “Not in another month. Not after the cameras are erased. Now.”