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The Israeli Supreme Court rejected on Tuesday an appeal against the detention of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and approved his continued imprisonment under Israel’s ‘unlawful combatant’ law without filing charges, his attorney Nasser Odeh said, Anadolu reports.
Odeh stated that the decision is “in clear contradiction with international law and the Geneva Conventions, which provide special protection for medical personnel during armed conflicts.”
“Abu Safiya remains held in solitary confinement in Nafha prison under harsh detention conditions, deprived of necessary medical treatment and the most basic rights guaranteed to him,” Odeh said.
Abu Safiya, who served as director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, was detained by Israeli forces on Dec. 27, 2024, after troops stormed the hospital during military operations in northern Gaza.
In previous statements, rights groups and lawyers said that during detention he has suffered severe weight loss, skin infections and medical neglect.
READ: Israel places detained Gaza hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya in solitary confinement
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have also reported that the detained pediatrician was subjected to abuse and mistreatment in Israeli custody.
According to Palestinian and Israeli rights groups, around 9,500 Palestinians remain in Israeli prisons, where detainees face torture, starvation and medical neglect that have led to the deaths of dozens of prisoners.
Israel’s war in Gaza since October 2023 has killed nearly 73,000 Palestinians and injured more than 173,000, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian figures.
Despite a ceasefire that took effect last October, the Israeli army has since killed 981 Palestinians and injured 3,104 in near-daily attacks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
READ: ‘I would have burned’: US citizen recounts Israeli occupier attack in West Bank town
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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the Strait of Hormuz would be fully reopened by Friday and remain open to shipping toll-free on a permanent basis, Anadolu reports.
Speaking to reporters at a meeting with the United Arab Emirates’ President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in France, Trump said: “We’re going to have it (Strait of Hormuz) fully open by Friday.”
“The ships are starting to move nicely, oil is starting to go, and the prices are coming down rapidly. Stock market is going up rapidly, a lot of good things are happening, and most importantly, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
He said the waterway “is going to be open toll-free, and it’s toll-free beyond the 60 days,” adding: “When it opens permanently, it’ll be toll-free.”
The US president vowed to share with media the peace deal document reached with Iran “in a couple of days.”
READ: Iranian ships cross US naval blockade area without obstruction for 1st time after deal: Report
“I’ll not only release it, I’ll probably have a press conference and read it to you word by word, so that the press covers it accurately, because it’s a very important document,” he said.
Trump also said he intends to send the Iran deal to Congress for review, saying: “I like the idea … Send it to Congress, please.”
He said that if the deal is not approved, “let’s let them (Iran side) have a nuclear weapon,” adding that the Democrats will “go crazy.”
The US president also said removing Iran’s enriched uranium following US strikes on the country would be a “very tough excavation,” adding that only US and “probably China” have the capability to do it.
READ: Germany says Hormuz mine-clearing mission depends on US, Iran consent
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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

A potential agreement between the US and Iran could be seen as a “betrayal” in Israel, a former Israeli prime minister told Irish public broadcaster RTE, Anadolu reports.
“I think that maybe from the point of view of the original position of Netanyahu, it may be interpreted as a betrayal,” Ehud Olmert said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He said Netanyahu would be unlikely to say so publicly because he is “entirely, completely dependent on the relations and support” of US President Donald Trump.
Though the details of the agreement were not yet fully known, Olmert argued that there appeared to be “a big margin” between the initial expectations of the US and Israel when military operations began and the current understanding between Washington and Tehran.
READ: Trump says Israel’s Netanyahu must be ‘more responsible’ on Lebanon
Olmert said he believed “the door is open” to an agreement between Israel and Lebanon, adding that Israel should withdraw from southern Lebanon as part of negotiations with the Lebanese government.
“We don’t need any territory in the south of Lebanon… we should pull out completely from the south of Lebanon and make all the necessary adjustments for territorial agreement, and we should try to make peace,” he added.
He said expectations that the Iranian regime would collapse were unrealistic, arguing that Tehran had endured significant challenges over decades and that such assumptions were “not serious.”
Both the US and Iran appeared to be seeking “a reasonable way to restore the situation to what it was before the war started,” he added.
“And the Iranians were very successful,” Olmert said.
READ: Ben Gvir attacks Trump-Iran deal: Israel ‘not bound by US agreement’
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