Israel's Supreme Court Upholds Detention of Gaza Hospital Director
The court upheld the continued detention of Hussam Abu Safiya, who has been held without charge since December 2024. He is one of at least 14 doctors from Gaza held under the same law.
thehindu.comIsrael's Supreme Court on June 16, 2026, rejected an appeal to release Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The 52-year-old pediatrician has been held without charge or trial since Israeli forces detained him on December 27, 2024. He is imprisoned under Israel's 'illegal combatants' law.
Abu Safiya remains among at least 14 doctors from Gaza detained in Israel without charge for more than a year. His lawyer, Nasser Odeh, visited him in prison on May 12. Odeh submitted ten requests to visit over the past six months; eight were canceled without explanation while he stood at the prison gate.
During a September 2025 visit, Abu Safiya was allowed to change his clothes for the first time in nine months. Odeh stated that Abu Safiya has been deprived of medical care. The detention followed a widely circulated photograph from November 21, 2024, showing Abu Safiya walking alone in a white coat toward an Israeli tank on a damaged street in northern Gaza.
The Israeli army initially denied the detention for forty days.
