Palestine’s mission to the UN has called for urgent international action to secure the release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, warning that his health has deteriorated severely in Israeli custody.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Palestine’s permanent observer to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi, sent an urgent appeal to the UN and several international humanitarian organisations calling for Abu Safiya’s immediate release.
Khraishi said the physician has been held without charge or trial since 27 December 2024, and has been subjected to torture, solitary confinement, ill-treatment and denial of adequate medical care.
Systematic abuse documented
He said UN special rapporteurs and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory 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.
