UN Says Detention of Gaza Doctor Hussam Abu Safiya Arbitrary and Urges Immediate Release

Doctor Hussam Abu Safiya. (Source: WAFA)

JAKARTA - The United Nations human rights agency on Monday called the detention of a doctor from Gaza, Palestine Hussam Abu Safiya by Israel an arbitrary act and urged his immediate release, while human rights groups and his lawyers warned that his life was in danger.

In its findings, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said Israel's actions violated several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

"The right solution is to immediately release Dr. Abu Safiya and give him enforceable rights to receive compensation and other damages," he said, citing Al Arabiya from Reuters (7/7).

The panel also raised broader concerns, saying the case - one of several brought before it - "may indicate widespread or systematic practices of arbitrary detention in the country."

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

MENA Rights Group, which filed the complaint, said the 52-year-old pediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza have been detained since December 2024.

They revealed that Abu Safiya's doctor had been repeatedly locked in an isolation cell, subjected to long interrogations, and beaten with clubs and electric shock batons.

Earlier on Monday, Abu Safiya's lawyer, Nasser Odeh, said through a group of prisoners, his client's health was in great danger and he was abused every day. A video recording of him from last month's Supreme Court hearing showed that he looked thinner.

"If Dr. Abu Safiya dies in that cell, it will be murder, and everyone who had the power to stop it - and did nothing - will be implicated," said Steve Cutts, CEO of the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.

The Israeli Prison Service has previously denied allegations that Abu Safiya and other doctors have been mistreated in prison.

Last month, Israel's Supreme Court rejected an appeal to release him. The decision was based on "secret material" under a law for so-called illegal combatants that also allows for detention for an indefinite period of time.

It is known that the Israeli military accused Abu Safiya of being a member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. They have not provided any evidence and the Gaza Ministry of Health and Hamas have denied the allegations.

Dr Abu Safiya is among at least 14 doctors from Gaza who have been held in Israel without charge for more than a year.

"The case is an example of Israel's systematic targeting of Palestinian health workers, which has contributed to the collapse of Gaza's health care system," Tanya Boulakovski, head of research at MENA Rights Group, told Reuters.

In 2023, Abu Safiya was among the doctors who refused to leave behind dozens of newborns they were caring for after the Israeli military ordered them to leave.

The UN working group's legal interpretation is not binding but is sometimes cited as evidence in cases at international courts.