Fears rising for Gaza doctor held by Israel for 200 days

Hossam Abu Safiya being denied adequate food and medical care despite worsening health, says lawyer

Hossam Abu Safiya has been held by Israel since last December. Photo: MedGlobal

A Gaza doctor detained by Israeli forces for 200 days without charge or trial is being starved, tortured and denied medical care, his family said.

Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested in late December after refusing repeated Israeli orders to leave the medical complex and its patients. He has since been held in an Israeli jail in “extremely harsh and degrading conditions”, said his son, Idrees Abu Safiya.

“The lawyer told us he has been subjected to verbal and physical abuse, humiliation and mistreatment throughout his detention,” the son told The National. “My father now suffers from multiple health issues due to a lack of medical care and continuous torture in Israeli prisons."

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The Palestinian paediatrician is being held in solitary confinement, with no sunlight or fresh air, his lawyer said. He is also being starved and has lost more than a third of his weight since being arrested, his son said.

He said Dr Abu Safiyah has sustained severe bruising to his face, head, neck and back from being physically assaulted, but the most pressing health concern he faces is his “irregular and unstable heartbeat, a condition that could become fatal at any moment". His son says the doctor has been denied medical attention.

“The occupation authorities continue to deny him proper medication and refuse to provide the necessary treatment,” he told The National." He has not been examined by any medical specialists to this day."

Dr Abu Safiyah was arrested last year during a prolonged Israeli raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital, featuring ground assaults that left it without basic medical necessities and a siege that left patients and medical teams stranded.

Gaza's hospitals have come under repeated attack by Israel, which says Hamas uses them as bases. EPA

Israeli bombing reduced many of the hospital’s departments to rubble, including the intensive care unit – the only one in northern Gaza – as well as the maternity ward and neonatal unit.

Aside from being a lifeline for injured Gazans, the hospital also sheltered hundreds of displaced families. Anyone who stepped out into the hospital courtyard was “immediately targeted”, Dr Abu Safiyeh told The National in an interview last year.

The Palestinian doctor has been “arbitrarily detained” for seven months, according to Amnesty International. It says he is being held under what it calls Israel’s "repressive Unlawful Combatants Law", which allows indefinite detention without charge based on suspicion alone.

Israel has accused Dr Abu Safiya of being a terrorist and of "holding a rank" in Hamas, a claim his family denies.

“The army claims my father has ties to Hamas, a complete fabrication,” his son told The National. "My father is a doctor, committed solely to serving the Palestinian people through his humanitarian mission in medicine."

Experts have warned the targeted detention of medical workers is part of a wider campaign against Gaza’s health care system.

“We have documented a significant number of arrests and forced disappearances among Gaza’s medical staff,” Ghazi Al Majdalawi, a researcher at the Palestinian Centre for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared, told The National. “The evidence indicates a deliberate strategy by the Israeli military to dismantle Gaza’s medical infrastructure.

“Doctors are being tortured, humiliated, denied legal counsel and cut off from their families,” he added. “These acts constitute grave violations of international humanitarian law.”