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On June 10, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya appeared on a screen before Israel’s Supreme Court via video link. He looked gaunt, visibly emaciated, and his hands and feet were bound. It was one of the few times the public had seen the doctor since Israeli soldiers took him from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza nearly 18 months ago, where he had served as Director. He has been held without charge for over 500 days, with little known about his condition.

After the court hearing, Abu Safiya’s lawyer delivered a message from the doctor to the public: “I am a pediatrician, providing medical care to patients, the wounded, and the vulnerable in Gaza. I carried out my work in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles. My detention is unjust and arbitrary.”

According to the lawyer, Nasser Odeh, the court hearing followed an appeal filed by Abu Safiya’s legal team calling for his immediate release, after an earlier district court decision had renewed his detention on April 28, 2026.

The Supreme Court came back with a rejection of Abu Safiya’s appeal. He remains in solitary confinement in Nafha Prison, to which he had been sent earlier in June as the date of his Supreme Court appearance drew near.

No formal indictment has been filed against Dr. Abu Safiya to date, as he is being held under Israel’s so-called “Unlawful Combatants Law,” according to Nasser Odeh. The law allows Israel to indefinitely detain Palestinians without having to file charges against them, subject to judicial review by the district court every six months. “Abu Safiya is one of 14 Palestinian doctors from Gaza currently being held in Israeli detention,” Odeh told Mondoweiss. “If there were actual charges against them, or evidence supporting the allegations made by the Israeli prosecution, indictments would have been filed and evidence presented, as is the case with any other detainee.”

Israel Moves Gaza Hospital Director Hussam Abu Safiya to Solitary Confinement

The lawyer added that Abu Safiya’s continued detention without the filing of formal charges demonstrates that his imprisonment is unjustified. To make it more difficult to challenge his detainment, Odeh said that Abu Safiya not only continues to be isolated from other detainees but is also cut off from his legal team, making it difficult to obtain verified information about his health condition.

Despite the efforts to suppress information pertaining to Abu Safiya, Mondoweiss has obtained testimony from recently released Palestinian detainees who said they spent time with the doctor in prison before he was moved to solitary confinement. The ex-detainees, all of whom were released in March of this year, said that Abu Safiya was subjected to physical torture, beatings, humiliation, and degrading treatment. They also say that they spent their final days in prison with the doctor.

“We saw him weighing no more than forty kilograms,” Ahmad Qaddas, 34, alleged. Qaddas had been detained from the Jabaila refugee camp in Gaza in December 2025, and previously knew Abu Safiya as one of north Gaza’s most prominent doctors and public figures. Qaddas claimed that he had spent six days with Abu Safiya shortly before being released. “I could not believe my eyes when I saw Dr. Hussam,” Qaddas told Mondoweiss. “His weight, his thinness, his health, his face, his hands, his feet, his entire body — I could not believe what I saw.”

Qaddas also claimed that Dr. Abu Safiya was minimally communicative, unable to respond to interactions. “He became so weak that he could barely speak,” Qaddas said. “He had to repeat each word he said at least four times before managing to pronounce it. Even when he ate, he vomited it back up. He always appeared exhausted and barely talked.”

Qaddas also said that the........

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