A UN human rights body has called on Israel to immediately release Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, who has been in detention since he was seized by Israeli troops in December 2024 during the Gaza war.
Israel's actions contravened several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said.
"The appropriate remedy would be to release Mr Abu Safiya immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations," it said.
The Mena Rights Group, which filed the complaint, said the paediatrician, 52, who was director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza when he was arrested, has faced repeated solitary confinement, long interrogations and beatings with batons and electric sticks.
The doctor's lawyer, Naser Odeh, who visited his client at the underground Nitzan prison last week, said his health was in grave danger and that he had been subjected to daily abuse.
Mr Odeh said he had visited Dr Abu Safiya several times since his detention but during the latest visit he “was not the same person I had previously met”.
“His physical and psychological state, the severe injuries visible on his body, and his personal testimony leave no room for doubt: his life is in immediate danger,” he said.
The Israeli Supreme Court last month rejected an appeal to release the doctor, who is being held under Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows the detention of suspects to be extended indefinitely.
The Israeli military has accused Dr Abu Safiya of being a member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. It has not provided evidence and Gaza's Health Ministry and Hamas denied the allegation.
The UN working group said Israel has not yet responded to its request, submitted in July last year, to "clarify the factual and legal grounds" for Dr Abu Safiya's detention.
It also raised broader concerns, saying the case – one of several submitted to it – “may indicate a widespread or systematic practice of arbitrary detention in the country".
Dr Abu Safiya is among at least 14 doctors from Gaza who have been detained in Israel without charge for more than a year.
His case is emblematic of "Israel's systematic targeting of Palestinian healthcare workers, which has contributed to the collapse of Gaza's healthcare system", Tanya Boulakovski, research lead at Mena Rights Group, told Reuters.
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention comprises five independent experts who meet three times a year in Geneva. Its legal interpretations are non-binding but are sometimes used as evidence in cases before international courts.
