Key facts
- Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, was detained on December 27, 2024, and held without charge for nearly 23 months.
- Israel's supreme court rejected a petition to release Abu Safiya in October 2026.
- A district court rejected a petition for an independent medical examination over the weekend.
- Prof Amit Tirosh said Abu Safiya's weight fell from 90kg in January 2025 to 76kg in May.
- Tirosh said a haemoglobin drop between February and July 2026 coincided with reported beatings at Rakefet.
- The Israeli prison service said the allegations are part of a campaign to discredit Israel and that it operates under judicial oversight.
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, was detained at work on December 27, 2024, and has been held in an Israeli prison without charge for nearly 23 months, the Guardian reported on November 11, 2026. He was later held in solitary confinement at Rakefet, an underground prison.
During a visit by a lawyer from Physicians for Human Rights Israel in the summer, Abu Safiya described harsh conditions, untreated medical problems and severe food shortages. Witnesses said he had become almost unrecognizable. He was classified as an "unlawful combatant" along with more than 375 medical workers, a designation Israel has used to justify prolonged detention without trial.
Israel's supreme court rejected a petition to release the doctor in October 2026. Over the weekend, a district court rejected a separate petition to allow Abu Safiya an independent medical examination, despite findings in his medical records that were not adequately investigated, according to Prof Amit Tirosh, an independent Israeli specialist who reviewed a file obtained by PHRI.
In an interview with the Guardian, Tirosh said Abu Safiya's weight had fallen from 90kg (14st 2lb) in January 2025 to 76kg in May. "Continuous food deprivation and weight loss, repeated beatings and injuries, with inadequate medical care, can definitely cost Dr Abu Safiya his life," Tirosh said. He cited insufficient investigation of chest pain, delays in treating scabies and a drop in haemoglobin levels that warranted further examination.
"A 14kg weight loss is very alarming, even more so if the cause is unknown," Tirosh said. "More troubling, the medical team was neither surprised nor concerned: one prison physician wrote that his weight loss over a year is 'a common trend among security prisoners associated to their diet'." He added that haemoglobin dropped between February and July 2026, coinciding with reported beatings at Rakefet, and that such blood loss can be life-threatening and requires urgent ER evaluation.