UN rights body demands release of Palestinian doctor detained by Israel
Hussam Abu Safia’s family and lawyer say his life is in imminent danger and he shows signs of having been tortured.
A UN human rights group is warning that the life of Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safia is in imminent danger and is demanding his immediate release from “arbitrary” Israeli detention.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Israel’s actions violated multiple articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“The appropriate remedy would be to release [him] immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law,” it said.
The UN rights body added that Abu Safia’s case was one of many it has investigated and “may indicate a widespread or systematic practice of arbitrary detention in the country”.
His lawyers allege that he has been beaten, held in prolonged solitary confinement, denied adequate medical care and subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Abu Safia’s lawyer Nasser Odeh has warned that the doctor’s health is in grave danger after being subjected to brutal abuse on a daily basis.
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According to his lawyer, the doctor is suffering from severe injuries, inability to talk, difficulty breathing and repeated loss of consciousness, with rights groups warning his life is in immediate danger.
“We are deeply alarmed by the reports that there is an imminent threat to Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s life as a result of torture and other ill-treatment he has been suffering while in Israeli custody. Israeli authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Dr. Abu Safiya,” said a statement from UK based rights group Amnesty International.
“Pending his release, we call on the Israeli Prison service to ensure he is fully protected from abuse, granted urgent adequate medical care and allowed immediate visitation by independent monitors,” the statement added.
Abu Safia was the director of Kamal Adwan hospital in Gaza when Israeli authorities detained him along with other medical staff and patients in December 2024. He has been held without charge ever since.
As his hospital struggled through bombardment, siege and catastrophic shortages, he became one of the few physicians willing to bear witness to the suffering of his patients. The image that came to symbolise his fate was not one of defiance but of quiet dignity: a solitary doctor walking towards an Israeli tank after evacuating his hospital.
The paediatrician had been a prominent voice highlighting Gaza’s decimated healthcare sector and continued to work despite the death of one of his sons in an Israeli drone strike. Like many health workers before him, he was detained while caring for his patients.
