Israel must immediately release detained Gaza hospital chief: UN experts

United Nations experts demanded Tuesday that Israel immediately release a Gaza hospital director who has been held since December 2024 and who reportedly has suffered severe torture and life-threatening injuries.

Hussam Abu Safiya, a paediatrician and director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, rose to prominence in 2024 by posting about the dire conditions in his besieged hospital in Beit Lahia during a major Israeli offensive.

On December 27 that year, Israeli forces began an assault on the facility, labelling the only functioning hospital in northern Gaza at the time a Hamas “terrorist centre”, and arresting dozens of medical staff including Abu Safiya.

“Dr. Abu Safiya’s ongoing arbitrary detention without charges or trial is a reflection of Israel‘s systematic targeting of Palestinian health workers,” four independent UN experts said in a statement.

They also charged that Israel’s “continuing decimation of the health care system in Gaza” was aimed “to inflict conditions to bring about the mental and physical destruction of Palestinians“.

The experts, who are mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations, said they had previously raised concerns with Israel about the legality of Israel’s Unlawful Combatants’ Law.

Pointing to reports that Abu Safiya had been subjected to “continued severe torture” and also that “his injuries could lead to imminent death”, the experts insisted that Israel ensure he “has access to immediate and adequate medical care”.

The experts also included the special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese, who has faced harsh Israel criticism and allegations of anti-Semitism from Israel amid her repeated accusations that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza.

They charged Tuesday that Israel during the war in Gaza had “turned the practice of medicine into a crime – and made health and care workers targets of harassment, intimidation, arrests, torture and death”.