A human rights group has filed a petition with Israel’s top court demanding to know the whereabouts of a prominent Palestinian hospital director detained by the Israeli military.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has not been seen publicly since he was arrested during an Israeli raid late last month that closed Kamal Adwan Hospital – the last major functioning health facility in northern Gaza.
Recently released former detainees told CNN on Monday that Dr. Abu Safiya is being held along with other medics from the hospital at Sde Teiman – a notorious military base in Israel’s Negev desert that doubles as a detention facility.
Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHRI) said in a statement Thursday that it filed the petition with the High Court after receiving a response to an inquiry from the Israeli military claiming that it had “found no indication of the arrest or detention of the individual in question.”
The IDF has since told CNN that Dr. Abu Safiya “was apprehended for suspected involvement in terrorist activities, and for holding a rank in the Hamas terror organization, while hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital under his management. He is currently being investigated by Israeli security forces.”
It made similar allegations about the hospital and its director around the time of the raid on the facility, without providing evidence for the claims.
Before the raid on December 27, the Israeli military had fired on Kamal Adwan Hospital on a daily basis, and raided the facility at least six times since October 5, Dr Abu Safiya told CNN.
In the months prior, the Palestinian doctor was in regular contact with CNN, and issued updates about impact of attacks on patients and medical workers at Kamal Adwan Hospital. Dr Abu Safiya repeatedly called for the protection of health care facilities in Gaza.
‘Great risk of torture’
On Thursday, UN experts said they were “gravely concerned” about the fate of Dr. Abu Safiya, and called on Israeli authorities, as the occupying power in Gaza, to “respect and protect the right to life.”
“The heroic actions of Palestinian medical colleagues in Gaza, teach us what it means to have taken the medical oath. They are also a clear signal of a depraved humanity that has allowed a genocide to continue for well over a year,” the experts said in a statement.
More than 1,057 Palestinian health and medical professionals have been killed in Gaza, according to the statement.
PHRI said it “highlighted [to the High Court] that this case is part of a broader pattern of non-disclosure and unreliable information provided by the Israeli military and prison authorities regarding Palestinian detainees.”
Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard said on X on Thursday that the rights group is “extremely alarmed by the latest information we have received regarding the whereabouts of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyyah.”
She added that he is “at great risk of torture and ill-treatment,” demanding that Israel reveal where he is.
