Adnan Al-Bursh was born in 1974 in Jabalia, the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, and received his early education there before traveling to Romania to study medicine.
[9] Shortly after the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war in October 2023, Al-Bursh started living full-time at Al-Shifa, sleeping in the hospital's staff room at night.
Al-Bursh's wife and six children[clarification needed] also refused to move south and sought refuge at one UNRWA school in the northern area of the strip.
[11][12] According to Naji Abbas, Physicians for Human Rights Israel's prisoners' department director, medical professionals have been mass arrested and interrogated to 'fish' for information even if they are not suspected of participating in the militant activity.
According to Dr. Khalid Hamoudeh, a former prisoner at Sde Teiman who was used as an assistant by the guards and had been ordered to receive Al-Bursh at the camp's gates, he was heavily beaten, unable to use the toilet without help, and believed that he had broken ribs.
[10] According to a deposition provided to HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization, by a prisoner who knew Al-Bursh, he was injured upon his arrival at Ofer in mid-April and was "naked in the lower part of his body".
The deposition said that guards threw him down in the yard and left him there, unable to stand up, and that he died shortly after being helped to a room by prisoners.
[22] His death was highlighted as an example of the ongoing challenges and risks faced by healthcare workers in Gaza, with hundreds killed, injured or arrested.
[10] The international community and human rights organizations have repeatedly called for an end to attacks on medical personnel and the protection of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
[3] Colleagues praised him as a "rare individual" and the "safety valve" for orthopedic departments across Gaza's hospitals, often working tirelessly even during the height of conflicts in the region.