A UN human rights body on Monday called Israel’s detention of Gazan doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, a colonel in the Hamas terror group, arbitrary and urged his immediate release, as rights groups and his lawyer warned that his life was in imminent danger.

In its finding, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Israel’s actions contravened multiple articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

“The appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Abu Safiya immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations,” it said.

The panel also raised broader concerns, saying the case — one of several submitted to it — “may indicate a widespread or systematic practice of arbitrary detention in the country.”

The Israel Prison Service and the Israeli diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel did not respond to the UN working group when approached about the case last July, it said.

MENA Rights Group, which filed the complaint, said the 52‑year‑old pediatrician and director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital has been held since December 2024. It said he has faced repeated solitary confinement, lengthy interrogations, and beatings with batons and electric shock sticks.

Abu Safiya was arrested by Israeli forces during the war against Hamas in Gaza in December 2024 and is one of the most prominent Gazan detainees. He is being held in solitary confinement, and rights groups have called for his release.

He holds the rank of colonel in the Hamas Military Medical Services, according to the service itself and Palestinian media reports. A photograph from 2016 showing him wearing a Hamas uniform and sitting next to senior members of the terror group emerged after his arrest.

Earlier on Monday, his lawyer, Nasser Odeh, said via a prisoners’ group that Abu Safiya’s health was in grave danger and that he had been subjected........

© The Times of Israel