Detained Gaza Hospital Director's Health Deteriorates, Lawyer Warns of 'Tangible Danger to His Life'
The lawyer of Dr Hussam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, says his health has sharply declined after more than 18 months in Israeli detention without charge. Palestinian prisoner authorities and rights groups report signs of torture, while Abu Safia's son and colleagues issue urgent appeals for his release.
Lawyer reports severe health decline
Abu Safia's lawyer, Nasser Odeh, visited him on 2 July after a transfer to Israel's underground Rakefet prison in late June. According to Odeh, Abu Safia had difficulty breathing and speaking continuously, was so weak he struggled to sit upright, and repeatedly seemed on the verge of losing consciousness. Odeh quoted Abu Safia as saying: "They brought me here to kill me. I don't see myself surviving. This is the end."
The lawyer's account is echoed by Abu Safia's son, Elyas Abu Safia, who said in a video message on Sunday that his father showed "signs of severe abuse" after being placed in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison. Elyas reported that Odeh told the family: "My father was unable to breathe. My father was unable to speak. His face was disfigured from the marks of torture and pain, and the blood he endured inside the prison, especially after the last court session held in Jerusalem."
In a separate visit on Thursday, Odeh described Abu Safia's life as in "imminent danger" and called for immediate action, warning that "Gaza may lose yet another brilliant doctor."
Palestinian prisoner authorities allege torture
Palestinian prisoner authorities say Abu Safia has been tortured in Israeli detention. Rights groups and his lawyer say there are "credible reports" of "continued and severe abuse," including severe torture, and that his life is in imminent danger. Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) has joined other organisations in calling for his release. Milena Ansari, PHRI's director for the area, said his detention is part of a broader pattern of Israeli attacks on healthcare across occupied Palestine.
Abu Safia's son appeals for release
In his video message, Elyas Abu Safia appealed for his father's release and criticised Arab and Muslim leaders for their silence. "You deprived us even of your voices, your solidarity and your support, which should have been there from the start of the detention," he said. "But sadly, your silence is a betrayal and a crime, and complicity in torturing my father and the hosta[ge]."
Abu Safia, a paediatrician, was detained by Israeli forces on December 27, 2024, after 85 days of siege at Kamal Adwan Hospital. He had refused to leave dozens of newborn infants during a forced evacuation order. His teenage son Ibrahim was killed by an Israeli drone attack outside the hospital two months earlier. At least 30 people were killed in the hospital when Israeli troops stormed it on December 6, 2024.
Broader context: deaths and detentions
On Sunday, a four-month-old Palestinian baby, Ahmad Maarouf Zaid, died after Israeli forces blocked his family from crossing a checkpoint to reach a waiting ambulance, his family told The Guardian. They drove the severely ill baby on unpaved and mountainous back roads to Ramallah themselves, delaying treatment by over an hour. Ansari said such incidents "reflect a broader pattern in which the conditions necessary to realise Palestinians' right to health are being systematically undermined."
Abu Safia is one of hundreds of Palestinian medical workers whom Israel has detained, according to Palestinian prisoner authorities. Among them is Dr Hassan Khalil Almukayed, a vascular surgeon who also worked at Kamal Adwan Hospital. Almukayed was detained by Israeli soldiers on October 25, 2024. His wife, Nadia, told Al Jazeera that other prisoners released by Israel have said her husband has lost 40kg (88 pounds). Almukayed has diabetes and high blood pressure, and has periodically been deprived of his medicine.
At least 15 Palestinian doctors from Gaza are currently in Israeli detention, according to Al Jazeera. The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory has called for Abu Safia's immediate release.
The Israeli military has claimed that Gaza's hospitals are military hideouts or "command centres" for the Palestinian armed resistance, but has not produced independent, verifiable proof of this, according to Al Jazeera. The arrest, abuse and torture of Palestinian medics and other staff from Gaza's hospitals aim to force false confessions of such use of hospitals, rights groups allege.
Casualties and humanitarian crisis
According to Al Jazeera, more than 24,000 of Gaza's children have been killed, an average of one Palestinian child killed by Israeli occupation forces every hour for 1,000 days. At least 42,011 children have been injured. At least 1,009 of the killed children were babies or toddlers, and nearly half of these babies were born and killed during the war. One million Palestinian children remain under what Al Jazeera described as a "sadistic Israeli siege," homeless, food insecure and without access to safe drinking water, regular schooling or proper medical care.