A Gaza doctor has been missing since November. His Canadian cousin is still looking for answers
The doctor is believed to be taken by the IDF, but neither Israel, nor Red Cross will answer questions
The last time Ontario resident Salim Elewa heard from his cousin, a resident emergency physician in Gaza, was over the phone on Nov. 18, when the doctor said he was approaching an IDF checkpoint and would call back later.
Elewa has been trying to find his cousin, Dr. Saleh Eleiwa, ever since, by contacting the International Red Cross in Jerusalem and in Canada, trying lawyers in Israel, and even appealing to his local MP.
"We have not heard a single thing about him, about his whereabouts or anything like that," said Elewa from his home in Burlington, Ont. "We don't even know if he's still alive."
Elewa described his cousin as "one of the brightest people you'll ever meet" and the valedictorian of his medical school program when he graduated in 2018.
Dr. Eleiwa was working in the emergency department at Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital when, on Nov. 18, the Israel Defence Forces ordered an evacuation of the hospital.
"On the news, we saw that they were evacuating Al-Shifa hospital so we called him and we asked him what is happening," Elewa said. "He told us that they had given them half [an] hour to evacuate the whole hospital."
The doctor's plan, Elewa said, was to go to south Gaza to be with his family, as his home in the north had been bombed. But, Elewa said, no one in the family heard from him after that last phone call as he approached an IDF checkpoint en route.
Dr. Tarek Loubani, an emergency room physician in London, Ont., who has worked and trained doctors in Gaza, has been one of Eleiwa's teachers and done several rotations with him.
Loubani said he has talked to other emergency doctors at Al-Shifa who saw what happened to Eleiwa, and told Loubani that Eleiwa was arrested by the IDF at the checkpoint along with other healthcare workers, some of whom were later released.
"The word came out through that type of prisoner grapevine that he was under arrest and had been taken into Israel," Loubani said. "That's the last that we've heard of him."
Elewa said he has heard the same from his cousin's colleagues.
In a statement to CBC News, a spokesperson for the IDF said the force "recognizes the importance of the special protections given to medical teams under international humanitarian law and takes action to prevent harm to them."
"The IDF is not at war with civilians in Gaza, the IDF is at war with Hamas. Hamas has embedded itself in civilian infrastructure and operates across the entire Gaza Strip," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said they could answer CBC's questions about Eleiwa if they had his passport number or ID number.
But when these numbers were shared with CBC News by Elewa and conveyed to the spokesperson, the spokesperson did not answer questions and instead referred them to the Israel Prison Service.
The Israel Prison Service has not responded in time for publication.
No answers from Red Cross
According to a mid-December report from the United Nations Human Rights Office, a number of Palestinians from north Gaza have been detained by the IDF and "many of those detained were subjected to serious ill-treatment, which in some instances may amount to torture."
"Families of detainees have not been provided any information on the fate or location of their loved ones or any reasons for their detention – exacerbating their sense of anguish and fear," reads the UN report.
About two weeks ago, Canadian citizen journalist Mansour Shouman went missing in Gaza. In a story similar to Eleiwa's, friends and family said they have been told by relief organizations on the ground that witnesses saw Shouman being taken by the IDF.
In his quest for answers about his cousin, Elewa has contacted both the International Red Cross in Jerusalem and the Canadian Red Cross.
"The International Red Cross in Jerusalem tells me, 'We're not allowed to release any information because the occupation is not allowing any of it to be released,'" Elewa said. "They told me to contact the Canadian Red Cross division."
The Canadian branch asked Elewa to fill out a form with his cousin's information.
"Once you return the document, we will process your request and transmit it to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - ILOT (Israel and the Occupied Territories) delegation," a Canadian Red Cross representative wrote to Elewa in an email on Dec. 6.
But neither the Canadian, nor the Jerusalem branch of the Red Cross have been able to find answers.
In emails to CBC News, an ICRC spokesperson said the organization has not been able to visit any Palestinians detained in Israel, or any Israelis held hostage in Gaza.
When asked how many Palestinians were being held in Israel, the ICRC spokesperson said, "we don't have numbers on that and even if we did, we would not share publicly due to our confidential and bilateral dialogue with the parties to the conflict."
It is also unknown how many people in Canada have filled out forms with the Canadian Red Cross' Restoring Family Links program, looking for missing loved ones in Gaza.
"I've looked into your request and we won't be providing you the number you've requested," said a Canadian Red Cross spokesperson when asked how many Canadians are looking for people in Gaza.
They did not share a reason for why this number is not available.
Elewa said he knows his cousin is not eligible to be evacuated to Canada, but will keep appealing to Red Cross, Canadian MPs, and other international organizations to find out where Eleiwa is and what condition he's being kept in. Despite not hearing from him for over two months, Elewa continues to try the doctor on his phone.
"His cell phone is still ringing and you're able to send him messages, meaning that his phone is active somewhere," Elewa said.
Corrections
- An earlier version of this article included a graphic where one of the Arabic text messages between Dr. Saleh Eleiwa and his cousin Salim was mistranslated as: "Here we are going around in circles in the hospital. We're waiting." The graphic has been updated with the corrected translation of the full text: "They're going around in circles at the hospital but they still haven't gotten to us... We're in [the Medical Specialties Building] waiting."Feb 06, 2024 4:06 PM ET
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