“Israeli” Group Warns Gaza Hospital Director’s Health in “Serious and Alarming” Decline

By Staff, Agencies

An “Israeli” organization has sounded the alarm over the deteriorating health of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, who has been detained by “Israeli” authorities since December 2024.

In a series of posts on X [formerly Twitter] on Thursday, Physicians for Human Rights “Israel” [PHRI] said that during its latest visit to Abu Safiya, “a serious and alarming picture emerged” regarding his condition.

“Since his arrest, Dr. Abu Safiya has lost approximately 25 kilograms. He suffers from severe scabies and heart problems but is not receiving any medical treatment,” the group said, adding that he has not been brought before a judge, subjected to an investigation, or even informed of the reason for his detention since March.

According to PHRI, “Israel’s” prison authority has ignored Abu Safiya’s repeated requests for medical examination despite his worsening condition. The group also relayed the doctor’s testimony, which described systematic violence by prison guards, routine beatings during cell searches, and chronic malnutrition, with detainees receiving meager portions of food and being forced to wear filthy clothes for months.

The rights organization said that many detainees have experienced severe weight loss and face inhumane conditions in “Israeli” prisons. Six months ago, PHRI documented the arbitrary detention of more than 100 Gazan medical workers, most of whom remain imprisoned without charge.

“All detainees are currently being held without charge — some for more than a year — in violation of due process and in serious breach of the right to health of Gaza’s population,” PHRI said. The organization called for “the immediate release of all Palestinian healthcare workers detained unlawfully by ‘Israel’,” urging the international community to act to ensure their freedom, dignity, and ability to serve those in desperate need.

The apartheid “Israeli” entity’s detention campaign is part of its wider war on Gaza, launched in October 2023 following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the surprise offensive by Palestinian resistance groups in response to decades of “Israeli” oppression.

Since then, the entity’s genocidal campaign has killed more than 65,540 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.