One month into his arrest: Securing Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s immediate release

“In the North of Gaza what is happening is a catastrophe,” said Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a paediatrician and Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza, in his desperate plea to the world two months before he was abducted and detained by Israeli forces. “We are talking about massacre after massacre. We are in dire need of specialized teams.”

The last picture of Dr. Abu Safiya, widely shared on social media, showed him in his lab coat walking towards an Israeli tank near Kamal Adwan Hospital, which was burned down by Israeli forces two days prior. The past 15 months of Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza have completely decimated Gaza’s medical infrastructure.The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has been documenting Israel’s deliberate targeting of Gaza’s healthcare sector. Every hospital in Gaza has been attacked by Israeli forces and is either damaged, destroyed or rendered completely dysfunctional. Israeli forces have unlawfully attacked medical facilities, aid workers and healthcare workers, and have restricted medical evacuations and blocked humanitarian aid. More than 1,057 Palestinian healthcare and medical professionals have been killed, and many have been arbitrarily arrested.

Before his kidnapping, Dr. Abu Safiya’s son was killed in front of him, and he was also injured while on duty as a result of Israel’s genocidal acts. His continued arbitrary detention by Israeli forces is a violation of international law and he must be released immediately. Despite all of this, he continued to provide care to his patients while Kamal Adwan Hospital was under continuous bombardment and threat. He repeatedly pleaded with the international community to provide urgent, lifesaving medical equipment and specialized care for his patients, always putting their care first, even in the most challenging of conditions. For this reason, Dr. Abu Safiya has therefore become a symbol of the perseverance and humanity of Gaza’s medical professionals.

The last picture of Dr. Abu Safiya, widely shared on social media, showed him in his lab coat walking towards an Israeli tank near Kamal Adwan Hospital, which was burned down by Israeli forces two days prior.

Israel’s systematic attacks on healthcare workers, hospitals and healthcare facilities violate the fundamental right of individuals to access essential healthcare services. A UN Commission of Inquiry has accused Israel of carrying out a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system. In issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court found that by intentionally limiting or preventing medical supplies and medicine, in particular anesthetics and anesthesia machines, the two Israeli officials are responsible for inflicting great suffering by means of inhumane acts on persons in need of treatment. The Court also found that doctors were forced to operate on wounded persons and carry out amputations, including on children, without anesthetics. Many were forced to use inadequate and unsafe means to sedate patients, causing these persons extreme pain and suffering.

Within this context of the decimation of Gaza healthcare sector, Israeli authorities have further detained and mistreated thousands of Palestinians, including Palestinian healthcare workers from Gaza, with persistent reports of torture, including sexual torture. Even Israeli human rights groups such as B’Tselem have spoken about how widespread and institutionalized this mistreatment is.

Dr. Abu Safiya was initially held at Sde Teiman, a military detention centre with an extensively documented history of systematic torture practices against Palestinians. In August 2024, a video emerged showing Israeli soldiers raping a Palestinian detainee with a baton until his insides ruptured. Dr. Abu Safiya is now believed to be held in Ofer Prison – the same prison where his colleague Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, the former head of orthopaedics at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, was held. After four months of abuse and torture in Ofer prison, Dr. al-Bursh was thrown by Israeli guards into the prison yard, naked from the waist down, bleeding and unable to stand. He died a short time after.

He repeatedly pleaded with the international community to provide urgent, lifesaving medical equipment and specialized care for his patients, always putting their care first, even in the most challenging of conditions. For this reason, Dr. Abu Safiya has therefore become a symbol of the perseverance and humanity of Gaza’s medical professionals.

Medical professionals are civilians and have special protections under international humanitarian law. They are not legitimate targets and cannot be legitimately detained for exercising their profession. In Gaza, Israel’s assault on healthcare facilities and medical personnel is clearly part of a well-established pattern of genocide.

The international community must now bring into action its obligations under international law and exert pressure on Israel to secure the release of Dr. Abu Safiya and all Palestinians arbitrarily detained. ICJP reiterates Palestinian human rights organizations and experts of the United Nations’ calls to end the systematic targeting of healthcare workers and the pattern of human rights violations against Palestinian detainees. However, until then, Palestinians in Gaza who have witnessed the destruction of the healthcare system will continue to suffer the consequences for decades to come. We are all responsible for our failure every time a hospital was attacked, and our failure to protect those who have sacrificed everything for their patients.