UN Experts Urge Israel to Free Gaza Doctor, Citing Reports of ‘Severe Torture’
Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s imprisonment appears “to be flagrantly arbitrary and manifestly inconsistent with the Mandela Rules, which establish the obligation of states to ensure prisoners have access to healthcare.”
A pair of United Nations human rights experts on Tuesday called on Israel to immediately release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a Palestinian physician and hospital director who has been imprisoned for more than 450 days and allegedly tortured by his captors.
Israel must ensure Abu Safiya “is granted access to medical examination and treatment,” UN Special Rapporteurs Tlaleng Mofokeng and Ben Saul said, adding that the doctor reportedly suffered “severe torture.”
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“We have received reports that Dr. Abu Safiya has been subjected to torture and other cruel and degrading treatment, and that his health condition remains dire,” the experts continued. “The conditions of his detention appear to be flagrantly arbitrary and manifestly inconsistent with the Mandela Rules, which establish the obligation of states to ensure prisoners have access to healthcare.”
“He has been systematically denied critical medical examination and treatment, and deprived of essential care to such an extent that his life, health, and well-being have been gravely endangered,” the pair added.
Israeli troops detained Abu Safiya, who is now 52 years old, on December 28, 2024 amid a prolonged siege and assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, where he served as director. Abu Safiya which refused to evacuate the facility as long as patients were still being treated.
Former detainees released from the notorious Sde Teiman torture prison in southern Israel said they met Abu Safiya there. According to testimonies gathered by the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Abu Safiya was tortured before his arrival at Sde Teiman and inside the facility.
Abu Safiya was subsequently transferred to Ofer Prison in the illegally occupied West Bank of Palestine, where another renowned Gaza physician, Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, died after reportedly enduring torture. UN Palestine expert Francesca Albanese cited reports that al-Bursh was “likely raped to death.”
During a previous Israeli attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital, Abu Safiya’s 15-year-old son was killed in a drone strike. Abu Safiya was seriously wounded in a separate drone attack that left six pieces of shrapnel in his leg.
Shortly after Abu Safiya’s detention, his mother died of a heart attack attributed to “severe sadness” by the medical charity for which the doctor worked.
A UN commission concluded in 2024 that “Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who ordered the “complete siege” of Gaza—are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder and forced starvation.
“Violence against healthcare workers, destruction of health facilities, and underlying determinants of health continue unabated despite a so-called ceasefire in Gaza,” the UN experts said Tuesday. More than 650 Palestinian civilians, including medical professionals, have been killed by Israeli forces since the ceasefire took effect last October, according to Gaza officials.
Overall, more than 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded over 899 days of Israel’s US-backed war, which UN experts, human rights groups, and many others argue is a genocide. Since South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in late 2023, nearly 20 countries have formally intervened to support the proceedings.
Most of Gaza’s over 2 million people have also been forcibly displaced—many of them multiple times—and many have suffered starvation and sickness.
The UN experts asserted that countries “have the power to end [Abu Safiya’s] torment, and we call on them to use it.”
“It is incumbent upon states with influence on Israel and the international community to use all avenues to ensure prevention, recourse, and justice,” they added. “Israel must release Dr. Abu Safiya and all healthcare workers, and ensure they have access to appropriate medical care.”
Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Wales Greens announce full slate of candidates for Senedd elections
The Wales Green Party has today announced that it will be standing a full slate of candidates in all 16 constituencies on 7 May 2026.
Wales Green Party Leader Anthony Slaughter said:
“I am very proud to be offering every person in Wales an opportunity to vote for a candidate that will make a real difference to their lives. Someone who will take the cost of living seriously by introducing rent controls, start cleaning up our rivers by holding Dŵr Cymru/Welsh Water to account, and stand up for international law and human rights in the face of government complicity in genocide and illegal wars.
“Since the election of Zack Polanski last September, the Green Party has seen rapid growth – with support surging the polls and in our record membership numbers followed by last month’s decisive by-election result in Gorton and Denton.
“With Greens surging in the polls, and the new proportional voting system, we can elect candidates across Wales ready to work hard for the changes we urgently need.”
Wales is the first nation in the UK to scrap the First-Past-The-Post system and the election in May will be the first under the full proportionate representation voting system that was introduced when the Senedd Reform Bill was approved on 9 May 2024.
Greens call for end to impunity as Human Rights Watch warn of UK complicity in Israeli violations in Lebanon
Responding to the expansion of Israeli military ground operations in southern Lebanon, Human Rights Watch has warned that countries that continue to provide Israel with arms and military aid risk complicity in the Israeli government’s serious violations in Lebanon. [1]
Reacting to the warnings of UK complicity in Israel’s violations in Lebanon, Dr Ellie Chowns MP said:
“Israel has continuously flouted international law with apparent impunity. That impunity must end. Throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza and illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank, the UK Government has refused to pursue appropriate action against its government for breaching international law or to re-evaluate Israel’s status as an ally to Britain.
“This permissiveness has not tempered but emboldened the Israeli government. Following its strikes on Iran, Israel has expanded its ground campaign in Lebanon, displacing a million people throughout the country, killing over 1,000 people – including 118 children – destroying civilian infrastructure, and seemingly preparing for prolonged occupation of southern Lebanon.
“Israeli government and military officials have made repeated overt comparisons between its plans for Lebanon and its genocidal destruction of Gaza. Human Rights Watch has now warned that Israeli officials have signalled an intent to wantonly destroy homes in Lebanon’s border villages, forcibly displace and prevent the return of “hundreds of thousands of Shiite residents of southern Lebanon”, and conduct strikes in Beirut that could target civilians simply for being “near Hezbollah members, facilities, or means of combat.” All these actions would constitute war crimes.
“The Government must heed these serious warnings and act decisively to avoid the UK’s complicity in further crimes and to end the impunity which has enabled and emboldened Israel. The Green Party reiterates our calls for the UK to halt all arms sales to and military cooperation with the Israeli Government, to drive independent investigations into war crimes committed and support justice mechanisms for victims, and to impose sanctions on government officials responsible for breaches of international law.”
[1]Israeli Officials Signal Stepped-Up Atrocities in Lebanon | Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch highlight recent statements from Israeli officials that signal “an intent to forcibly displace residents, destroy civilian homes and conduct strikes that could target civilians. Forcible displacement, wanton destruction and attacks deliberately targeting civilians are war crimes.”
Since the recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,029 people in Lebanon, including 118 children and 40 medical workers, as of March 22 according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, and over one million people have been displaced following a series of displacement orders by the Israeli military.
Human Rights Watch recommends that “Israel’s key allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, should suspend military assistance and arms sales to Israel and impose targeted sanctions on officials credibly responsible for ongoing serious abuses. They should levy further pressure on Israel to ensure that displaced residents can return to their homes once hostilities end or once the reasons for their displacement cease to exist.”
Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, Ramzi Kaiss, said, “Atrocities flourish when there is impunity, and other countries should no longer stand by as they continue.”
Germany backs EU sanctions amid Israeli settler pogroms in the West Bank
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Germany on Monday reaffirmed support for EU sanctions against violent Israeli settlers amid the ongoing pogroms on Palestinians in the West Bank, Anadolu reports.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Martin Giese told journalists in Berlin that his country would “support” EU sanctions against violent Israeli settlers but also made it clear that the decision would be “made in Brussels.”
He pointed out that there was one EU member state, alluding to Hungary, that was “blocking” such sanctions.
Giese stressed again that it is “clearly the wish of the federal government” to proceed with such sanctions.
In other related news, Giese defended German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert, who was lambasted by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar for criticizing the anti-settler violence in the West Bank.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul stressed in his phone call with his Israeli counterpart on Sunday evening “on the need for a more decisive approach to combat settler violence,” said Giese.
READ: Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinians in 13 locations across occupied West Bank
The spokesperson reiterated his ministry’s “full” support for Seibert on this issue.
Meanwhile, government spokesman Stefan Kornelius voiced his country’s “concern” over the situation in the West Bank and “called on the parties to exercise restraint.”
Since the start of the Gaza war on Oct. 8, 2023, attacks by Israeli forces and illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank have killed 1,133 Palestinians, injured about 11,700 others, and led to the arrest of roughly 22,000 people.
In February alone, illegal settlers carried out 511 attacks across the West Bank, killing seven Palestinians by gunfire, according to official Palestinian figures.
Earlier, in a landmark opinion in July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
READ: Germany withdraws legal backing for Israel in ICJ genocide case
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