Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, has been unaccounted for some time. Now, his lawyer and testimony from his family and fellow prisoners is revealing a picture of brutal Israeli torture. Dr. Safiya was abducted by Israel’s forces along with other medical staff and has been held without charge or trial. He’s also been denied access to legal representation until now.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has been detained without charge in Ofer Prison. His prolonged detention without charges amid documented accounts of torture and inhumane conditions has raised concerns about his status as a hostage in the ongoing conflict. The Al-Mezan legal rights center has expressed deep concern over his situation, warning that Israel may be using his detention as political leverage in ceasefire negotiations. Despite international calls for his release, Abu Safiya remains in custody, facing a detention hearing that could prolong his arbitrary detention by another six months, according to a recent article by Palestine Chronicle.

In a letter to PM Netanyahu, the World Medical Association urges Israel to uphold due process for Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya detained since December 2024 without charge and other Gaza health workers. Dr Abu Safiya walked towards an Israeli tank in defiance at the bombing of Kamal Adwan Hospital. He is now one of 95 doctors and healthcare workers detained illegally by the Israeli Death Forces (IDF). His ‘crime’ was to tirelessly care for the sick & wounded when the IDF attacked his hospital. 

Hussam Idris Abu Safiya is a Palestinian pediatrician and neonatologist who served as the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip from February 2024 until its evacuation in Dec 2024. He stood unyielding as director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, beaten and kidnapped by occupation forces in Dec 2024 for refusing to abandon his patients. Dr. Abu Safiya's son Ibrahim was killed by an Israeli drone strike at the hospital entrance. The attack occurred while the hospital was under siege with hundreds of patients and staff inside. Dr. Abu Safiya refused to evacuate the hospital despite the Israeli military's orders. His son's death was a tragic consequence of the IDF targeting civilians and hospitals in Gaza.

After completing his education, Abu Safiya moved to Kazakhstan. He studied medicine at Ahmet Yassawi University in Turkistan, Kazakhstan. While there, he met and married a Kazakh woman, Elbina. After graduating from university, Abu Safiya and his wife returned to Gaza in 1996, settling in Jabalia. Dr. Abu Safiya has a plenty of opportunities to leave Gaza with his family during the war but this man is a leader with iron spine.

He is still being imprisoned by Israel indefinitely: "The occupation authorities attempted to charge him but after 45 days of interrogations and torture, failed to find any evidence. His case was reverted to 'unlawful combatant' status, stripping him of all legal rights, including representation and formal charges, allowing indefinite detention." 

Eva Karene Bartlett, an American Canadian activist and commentator wrote recently on her blog, "It is widely known that Israel tortures Palestinian hostages including to death. Since 2023 alone, Israel has tortured 3 Palestinian doctors from Gaza to death. We are VERY concerned about the well-being of Dr. Abu Safiya." I should add that 85 Palestinian hostages died in Israeli prisons as a result of torture and medical negligence since 10/7/2023.

Miss Bartlett wants the world to know that "Israeli detainees held by Hamas leave healthy, smiling, evidently well fed. Palestinian hostages (if not tortured to death) emerge starved and traumatized by the various forms of torture they endured from Israeli soldiers. Everything media accused Hamas of doing, Israel actually did/does."

"This doctor should have been safe by now under protected status and revered by international leaders as an icon of ethics. Instead, he is still a hostage of Israel, which has abducted him." Tweeted Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on April 9, 2025.

The Guardian newspaper revealed in an investigative report that Israel is holding dozens of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in a secret underground prison known as "Rakefit" under conditions described by human rights organizations as "cruel and inhumane."

The report stated that the detainees, including a nurse arrested while working at a hospital and an 18-year-old youth, are deprived of natural light and adequate food. They are also prevented from contacting their families or receiving any news from the outside world and have been held without charge or trial for months.

The report quoted informed sources as saying that the entire prison, including the cells and the lawyers' meeting room, is located underground, completely depriving the detainees of sunlight.

Finally, since Israel always brags to represent the only democracy in the Middle East, basic elements of democracy require Israel to either charge or release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya immediately. I will not be silent till all media talk about Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.

I promised in 1983 when I wrote my first letter to the editor in defense of my younger Samih El-Yousseph (which was published in the Columbus Dispatch) who was taken hostage the year before hostage by the IDF in Lebanon to never stop speaking out publicly in defense of Palestinian prisoners. He was freed on Thanksgiving Day in 1983 after 18 months of captivity in a POW exchange between Israel and the PLO. Sadly, Israel refused for no reason to free Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya in the latest Gaza-Ceasefire Deal.  

Mahmoud El-Youseph is a Palestinian freelance writer and retired U.S. Air Force veteran. He writes on U.S. foreign policy, Middle East affairs, and justice. Email: elyousseph6@yahoo.com