The life of detained Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, is facing an immediate and imminent threat, following alarming information revealed by Physicians for Human Rights, based on the testimony of his lawyer, Nasser Odeh, after his latest visit to him on July 2 in the underground Israeli interrogation section known as Rakevet inside Nitzan Prison in Ramla.
The information regarding Dr. Abu Safiya’s physical and psychological condition is an extremely serious warning. The doctor, who was abducted from his medical and humanitarian post and has been detained since December 27, 2024, without charge or trial, is now facing a real threat to his life after being transferred to a secret underground section, amid testimonies confirming that he has been subjected to beating, torture, ill-treatment, and denial of medical care.
According to the testimony of lawyer Nasser Odeh, Dr. Abu Safiya was brought to the visit with his hands and feet shackled, surrounded by a group of masked prison guards. Fresh and serious injuries and bruises were visible on his body, including on his head, around his eyes, ears, and neck, to the extent that his lawyer had difficulty recognizing him.
During the visit, he appeared severely exhausted, unable to breathe normally, unable to speak continuously, and unable to sit steadily without losing his balance. At several moments, he appeared to be on the verge of losing consciousness.
The treatment of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya inside Israeli prisons is being carried out in the manner of militias and gangs, not according to any law, judicial procedure, or humanitarian rule. Shackling, enforced disappearance, isolation, daily beating, threats, and denial of medical treatment are all tools of revenge and retaliation practiced by Israel against a Palestinian doctor who has become a living witness to the targeting of the health system in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli is settling scores with Dr. Abu Safiya because of his medical and humanitarian symbolism, and because of his steadfastness at Kamal Adwan Hospital during one of the most horrific stages of the targeting of the health sector. What is happening to him is not an isolated incident or an individual violation, but an organized retaliatory policy aimed at breaking him physically and psychologically and silencing his voice.
Dr. Abu Safiya’s testimony to his lawyer, in which he stated that since his transfer to the Rakevet section he has been subjected to daily violence and beatings, and that he lost consciousness several times without receiving proper medical care, reveals a dangerous pattern of physical and psychological torture, as well as a deliberate escalation that may push him toward complete collapse or lead to his liquidation inside the prison under the cover of isolation and interrogation.
Dr. Abu Safiya told his lawyer: “This is the last time you will see me. They brought me here to kill me. I do not see myself alive. This is the end.” These words are a final cry for help from inside a torture cell, and a direct message to the world that the life of an unarmed Palestinian doctor is now threatened with slow assassination inside the Israeli prisons.
What is happening to Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is a prelude to his assassination, whether through direct torture, medical neglect, isolation, or leaving him exposed to beatings, exhaustion, and repeated loss of consciousness. Israeli authorities and prison forces bear full and direct responsibility for his life and his physical and psychological safety.
The transfer of Dr. Abu Safiya to the Rakevet section inside Nitzan Prison, after a period of solitary confinement in Gannot Prison and following legal procedures challenging the continuation of his detention, comes within the context of a dangerous escalation that amounts to retaliation against a prisoner who exercised his legal right to object to his detention without charge or trial.
The continued detention of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya under the so-called Unlawful Combatants Law, without any charge being brought against him and without any criminal proceedings being opened against him, represents a blatant violation of the most basic principles of justice. It shows that his detention is not based on any genuine legal process, but rather on a policy of arbitrary detention and retaliation against Palestinian medical personnel.
What Dr. Abu Safiya is being subjected to is inseparable from a broader policy targeting Palestinian doctors and health workers. The medical system in the Gaza Strip has become a direct target of Israel through bombing, destruction, detention, and torture, in an attempt to break those who remain as witnesses to the crime and as lifesavers inside hospitals and health centers.
Israel is making every effort to divert attention from the case of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and from the case of more than 10,000 Palestinian male and female prisoners in its prisons. The tragedy experienced by Abu Safiya is an intensified reflection of what Palestinian prisoners are subjected to, including torture, starvation, deprivation, isolation, and medical neglect. It is not an individual case isolated from the broader crime against the prisoners’ movement.
In light of these dangerous developments, urgent and immediate action is required to remove Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya from the Rakevet section in Nitzan Prison, transfer him to a safe place where medical care is available, allow an urgent and independent medical examination, enable his lawyer, family, and human rights organizations to review his condition, and ensure an immediate visit by an independent judicial and official body to assess his condition before it is too late.
The World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Physicians for Human Rights, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the United Nations Special Rapporteurs must take urgent and immediate action that places Dr. Abu Safiya’s life and the case of Palestinian prisoners at the top of their priorities, and imposes real international monitoring over the conditions of detention of doctors, prisoners, and female prisoners inside Israeli prisons.
Silence over what is happening to Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is no longer a neutral position, but an indirect cover for the continuation of torture. When a detained doctor tells his lawyer that he does not see himself alive, and when he arrives at the visit injured, suffocating, and on the verge of losing consciousness, the world faces an urgent moral and legal responsibility that cannot tolerate cold statements or further waiting.
The life of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is in immediate danger. Every minute he remains inside the Rakevet section may carry a new threat to his life. Urgent international action is no longer an option but a duty, before this warning turns into a tragedy, and before another Palestinian doctor pays with his life for the world’s silence and inaction.
Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy
Saturday, July 4, 2026
