An Israeli court extended the detention of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya on Thursday, according to his legal team – nearly a year after the military first detained the Palestinian hospital director from Gaza without charge.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) condemned the court decision to suspend the legal review of his case by six months.
Israel continues to hold Palestinian doctors “under conditions of torture and starvation,” the Israeli non-profit said in a statement. Lawyers working with PHRI said Israeli authorities have denied health workers access to “medical care or basic rights.”
CNN has reached out to Israeli authorities for comment.
Israeli forces detained Dr. Abu Safiya during a raid in December as it shut down Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya. At the time, Israel claimed without providing evidence that he was “suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative.”
A senior Hamas official previously told CNN that Israel would not release Safiya as part of a ceasefire and hostage release agreement.
In the past two years, the Israeli military has detained more than 409 health workers from Gaza and the occupied West Bank, according to the medical organization, Healthcare Workers Watch Palestine.
Palestinians from Gaza are held in Israel under the Unlawful Combatants law, enacted in 2002, which allows authorities to “detain Palestinians from Gaza en masse without charge or trial,” according to Amnesty International.
The Safiya family called on human rights organizations and negotiation parties to “ensure his release as soon as possible.”
