Israel’s Brutal Retaliation Against Imprisoned Palestinian Doctors Seeking Legal Appeals
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/doctor-hussam-abu-safiya-prison-abuse-medical-gaza
The escalated abuse against Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya following a legal challenge to his detention has sent a chilling message to the families of detained medical workers in Gaza.
Ismail Nofal Aug 08, 2026
GAZA CITY—Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the former director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, suffered multiple injuries, including fractured ribs, after enduring severe beatings by Israeli prison authorities on July 27, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office. The group described it as the “most difficult day” of his imprisonment since being detained without charge over a year and a half ago.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the office said Abu Safiya, who suffers from heart disease and high blood pressure, has been subjected to “brutal torture” since June 24, when he was transferred to Rakevet—an underground detention facility within the Ramla prison complex in central Israel—including spending 21 days in solitary confinement.
Previously, Abu Safiya told his lawyer, Nasser Odeh, during a prison visit on July 2, that following an appeal filed with the Israeli Supreme Court at the end of April, the assaults and abuse against him escalated dramatically. Abu Safiya told Odeh that after a court hearing in June, where he appeared via a video link looking gaunt, several prison guards entered his cell and beat him with batons and a hammer.
Abu Safiya’s son, Elias, 27, told Drop Site News that Odeh found his father in extremely critical condition during the July 2 visit—unable to breathe normally and speaking with great difficulty, with marks of beatings and torture visible on his face and body.
According to Elias, Abu Safiya told Odeh that this might be the last time he would see him. For the family, it felt like “a farewell message from a human being who feels his life is nearing its end,” said Elias. “Since that moment, we have been living every day in genuine fear of receiving the news of his martyrdom at any moment.”
The apparent repercussions against Abu Safiya in prison following the legal challenge to his detention and similar cases involving detained medical workers have sent a chilling message to the families of Palestinian detainees—particularly doctors—that seeking justice, either through legal means or public campaigns, can have severe consequences.
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Gaza health chief urges action to ‘save’ Dr Abu Safia before it’s too late
Fears mount for life of Hussam Abu Safia detained by Israel amid reports of torture and lack of medical care.
The director general of Gaza’s Ministry of Health has called for urgent action to “save” the life of detained Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safia before it is “too late”.
The paediatrician has been held by Israel since 2024 and “serious concerns are mounting” over his life and health, Dr Muneer al-Boursh posted on X on Saturday.
He noted reports that Abu Safia has been assaulted while in an Israeli detention facility and has sustained injuries to his eye, head and chest.
Abu Safia’s ongoing detention and lack of medical care have made his health condition a “source of extreme alarm that demands urgent action not postponed statements,” al-Boursh added.
Abu Safia was the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital who led the facility, one of the last functioning in northern Gaza, through an 85-day siege before Israeli forces raided it and detained him on December 27, 2024.
He has been held without charge under Israel’s unlawful combatant law, which permits indefinitely renewable detention; Israel’s supreme court rejected an appeal for his release in June. His lawyer, who visited him last month, reported new signs of beatings and torture. Rights groups, including Amnesty International and the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, have warned that his life is in imminent danger.d
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Doctors and human rights campaigners demonstrate outside Parliament to demand the release of Palestinian medics detained in Israel, October 21, 2025
