Israel puts Palestinian doctor in solitary confinement after 17 months held without charge

Abu Safiya had kept Kamal Adwan hospital running through more than 80 days of siege and attacks by Israeli forces Photograph: RFI View image in fullscreen Abu Safiya had kept Kamal Adwan hospital running through more than 80 days of siege and attacks by Israeli forces Photograph: RFI Israel puts Palestinian doctor in solitary confinement after 17 months held without charge Dr Hussam Abu Safiya now in cell barely big enough to sit in, says son, after UN experts demanded his release in March The son of a prominent Palestinian doctor detained by Israeli forces in Gaza in late 2024 and held for more than 500 days without formal charges has spoken of his deep concern for his father’s wellbeing after he was transferred without explanation to solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison. Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, was detained at work on 27 December 2024. Physicians for Human Rights Israel said last week it had received information indicating that the 53-year-old had been transferred from Ketziot prison to Ramon prison, part of the Ganot prison complex, where he had been put in solitary confinement. PHRI said it had not been told the reasons for the transfer. During a visit by a PHRI lawyer last month, Abu Safiya described harsh detention conditions, untreated medical problems and severe food shortages. View image in fullscreen Abu Safiya working at the hospital Photograph: supplied His son Elyas Abu Safiya, who is also a doctor, said his father required surgery to remove shrapnel that had become lodged in his left thigh when he was detained, and that he continued to suffer persistent pain and swelling at the site of the wound. “What we know [about his time in detention] shows severe suffering,” Elyas said. “During the first months of his detention, he was not allowed to change his clothes, and he developed skin diseases without receiving proper treatment. “We were told that he is [now being] held in an extremely small solitary cell, no larger than one metre by one metre, a space barely enough to move or sit properly,” he added. According to Elyas, at the time of his detention his father was wearing a white medical coat that he had refused to wash since the death of his son Ibrahim, killed by a drone strike at the hospital entrance in October 2024. Abu Safiya had kept the hospital running through more than 80 days of siege and attacks by Israeli forces amid an intensive military operation in the surrounding refugee camp. More than 525 days after his arrest , Israeli authorities have yet to bring any formal charges against him. He was classified as an “unlawful combatant”, along with more than 375 medical workers – a designation Israel has frequently used to justify prolonged detention without trial. Since his arrest, the family has not been able to communicate with him directly. View image in fullscreen Abu Safiya showing the damage inside Kamal Adwan hospital in December 2024, shortly before he was