UN inquiry urges release of Gaza doctor held by Israel without charge
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry called for the immediate release of Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, saying the conduct of Israeli Prison Service guards toward Palestinian detainees likely amounts to international crimes under international law.
- Hussam Abu Safiya was seized by the Israeli military in Gaza in December 2024 and remains held in Israel without charge, with his lawyer alleging daily abuse and his life in imminent danger, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel.
- At Abu Safiya's June Israeli Supreme Court hearing, where he appeared visibly thinner via video link, his lawyer renewed warnings that his declining medical condition is the direct result of his treatment by Israeli Prison Service guards.
- Israel Prison Service rejected the abuse allegations as "false, outrageous and entirely without factual basis," the same position it has held since Abu Safiya and other detained doctors entered custody.
- Separately, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled his detention arbitrary and demanded immediate release, finding Israel's actions violated multiple articles of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
- The same UN inquiry concluded in September 2025 that Israel committed genocide by deliberately targeting Gaza's healthcare system and medical professionals since October 2023 — a finding Israel called "scandalous" and that led it to refuse cooperation with the body.
- Israeli activists rallied in Tel Aviv on Monday calling for his release, an unusual show of domestic Israeli pressure on behalf of a Palestinian detainee held without charge.
Why it matters: Two UN bodies have now formally demanded Abu Safiya's release, and Israel has flatly rejected both findings — deepening the diplomatic standoff over the treatment of Palestinian medical workers. With a visibly deteriorating detainee his lawyer says faces imminent danger, the case compounds an existing UN finding that Israel targeted Gaza's healthcare system as part of a genocide.
