NEW YORK CITY: UN experts on Tuesday called on Israel to immediately release Palestinian physician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and all health and care workers held in what they described as arbitrary detention.
The experts said Abu Safiya’s continued detention without charge or trial reflects Israel’s systematic targeting of Palestinian health workers and the continued destruction of Gaza’s health system, aimed at inflicting conditions leading to the mental and physical destruction of Palestinians.
The independent experts include special rapporteurs Francesca Albanese, Tlaleng Mofokeng, Morris Tidball-Binz and Ben Saul.
Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was detained by Israeli forces on Dec. 27, 2024, when the facility was the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza. The experts said he was illegally detained alongside other medical staff and patients under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, a statute they previously flagged as incompatible with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
The experts said they first raised the alarm in October 2023, urging member states to halt the escalation of war, and have since engaged directly with Israel over reports of arrests and detentions of health care workers.
