Palestine’s mission to the U.N. called Monday for urgent international intervention to secure the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, warning that his health has seriously deteriorated while in Israeli custody.
According to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, Palestine’s permanent observer to the U.N. in Geneva, Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi, sent an urgent appeal to the U.N. and several international humanitarian organizations calling for Abu Safiya’s immediate release.
Khraishi said the physician has been held without charge or trial since Dec. 27, 2024, and has been subjected to torture, solitary confinement, ill-treatment and denial of adequate medical care.
He said U.N. special rapporteurs and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel had documented Abu Safiya’s torture and warned that his deteriorating condition placed his life at imminent risk, calling for his immediate and unconditional release.
Khraishi said Abu Safiya’s case reflected a broader pattern of attacks on Palestinian health care workers, stressing that Israel, as the occupying power, is legally bound under international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions to protect medical personnel.
