Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, pediatrician and former director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, became a symbol of the bravery and brutalization of Palestinian healthcare workers after being detained by Zionist forces in December 2024.
Arrested during the raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital, where he remained caring for patients despite repeated attacks, Dr. Abu Safiya has now been held for more than eighteen months without charges under the Zionist entity’s Unlawful Combatants Law, a statute that permits indefinite detention without formal charge or trial. His detention is in flagrant contravention of international law and is a grave human rights violation, exposing the futility of international judicial and human rights bodies.

Dr. Abu Safiya was recently transferred to solitary confinement, reportedly following a legal challenge to his continued detention. His legal team and human rights organizations report that he has suffered torture, beatings, severe weight loss, inadequate nutrition, denial of essential medical treatment, and prolonged isolation, raising serious concerns about his deteriorating physical and mental health.
“This is the last time you will see me,” he told his lawyer, according to Drop Site News. “They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving. This is the end.”
His case has prompted widespread outrage and international calls for his immediate release. United Nations experts, medical associations, humanitarian organizations, and human rights groups argue that his continued detention without charge undermines medical neutrality and international humanitarian law.
Dr. Abu Safiya’s unlawful and brutal detention serves as a sickening reminder of the reality that thousands of Palestinian detainees face: torture, sexual violence, starvation, and abuse. Mainstream media chooses to ignore this reality, a silence that eats away at their credibility and renders them complicit. Dr. Abu Safiya’s life is at stake. We join his family in demanding his immediate release.
This piece appears in the twenty-second issue of The New York War Crimes.