Israel rights group petitions top court to order release of 14 Gaza doctors

An Israeli human rights organisation has petitioned the Supreme Court to demand the immediate release of 14 doctors from Gaza held without charge for more than a year.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) said on Thursday that it filed the petition after the Israeli military’s Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir failed to respond to its request to release the group, which includes paediatricians, orthopaedic specialists and surgeons.

Substantial evidence has emerged during more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza that the enclave’s healthcare infrastructure has been systematically destroyed.

PHRI said the continued detention of doctors is hindering efforts to rehabilitate Gaza’s healthcare system and called on international actors to show solidarity in pushing for their release.

Among those in Israeli custody is Dr Hussam Abu Safia, who has been held without charge for nearly 18 months. Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was detained in December 2024 when Israeli forces stormed the facility, then the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza.

His brother, ⁠Muafaq Abu Safia, told the Reuters news agency that they were informed by their lawyer that Hussam Abu Safia had lost ⁠40kg (88lb) while in prison, and suffered four fractured ribs along with other ailments.

“All the crimes inflicted on him by the occupation [Israel] were just because he refused to leave the hospital and patients,” Muafaq told Reuters.

United Nations experts have warned that Safia has been subjected to “severe torture”, while Amnesty International said his detention forms part of a broader pattern by Israel aimed at dismantling Gaza’s healthcare system and creating conditions that make it impossible for Palestinian society to exist.

Numerous aid groups have warned that Gaza is facing a critical shortage of medical supplies due to Israeli restrictions.

Victoria Rose, a plastic surgeon who made several trips to Gaza between March 2024 and June 2025 to provide specialist care, told Al Jazeera the conditions she encountered were “unimaginable”.

“During the height of the war, conditions were incomparable to what they had been before the conflict. The worst period was in May and June 2025. There was a complete blockade of fuel, water and food. We had no supplies at all. We had only two types of antibiotics.

“It was unimaginable, and patients were arriving in overwhelming numbers.

Israel has denied deliberately targeting medical workers in Gaza and has accused Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes, but has provided no credible evidence to support those claims.