The life of a prominent Palestinian doctor held in Israeli detention without charge is in "imminent danger" following months of abuse and solitary confinement, an Israeli rights group warned on Saturday. Hussam Abu Safiya , the head of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza , has been held without charge since December 2024 when he was abducted by Israeli forces.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said his lawyer, Nasser Odeh, found him severely injured during a visit to Nitzan Prison on 2 July.
During the visit, Odeh said the 53-year-old paediatrician experienced difficulty breathing, showed signs of severe psychological distress and was on the verge of losing consciousness. He reported that fresh injuries to his client's face were so severe that he struggled to recognise him.
Odeh said he had visited him several times since his detention, but during the latest visit "he was not the same person I had previously met".
"His physical and psychological state, the severe injuries visible on his body, and his personal testimony leave no room for doubt: his life is in immediate danger," he warned.
Abu Safiya has been held for more than 550 days under the Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows Israeli authorities to indefinitely detain Palestinians without charge or trial.
Israel's Supreme Court last month rejected an appeal for his release, upholding his detention until at least October.
Following the Supreme Court hearing, PHRI said Abu Safiya reported being beaten with a hammer and batons by Israeli prison guards at Ganot Prison, where he had been held in solitary confinement .
He said he has been subjected to daily beatings since his transfer to the Rakefet interrogation facility on 24 June and was denied medical attention. Rakefet is an underground facility inside Nitzan Prison where other Palestinian detainees have reported suffering violence and abuse.
"This is the last time you will see me… They brought me here to kill me. I don't see myself surviving. This is the end," Odeh quoted him as saying.
"This is a clear continuation of attempts to murder him while in prison," said the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, a local NGO.
"Israeli occupation authorities are intensifying their direct targeting of Dr. Abu Safiya by subjecting him to a systematic regime of torture and harsh detention conditions aimed at exhausting him physically and psychologically," it said in a statement.
Naji Abbas, the head of PHRI's prisoners and detainees department, said Abu Safiya's testimony was "among the most shocking we have heard" since the start of the war and urged Israeli authorities to provide immediate medical attention.
"The information we have received raises grave and immediate concerns for Dr Hussam Abu Safiya's life," he said.
"If the authorities do not intervene immediately, there is a real risk that Dr. Abu Saiya will not leave detention alive."
A group of UN experts said in March that Israel must immediately release Abu Safiya following reports he had undergone "severe torture" and was being denied medical treatment.
Israeli forces have detained hundreds of healthcare workers in Gaza since launching their genocidal assault on the strip. Many have reported being subjected to torture and mistreatment.
Abu Safiya is among at least 14 doctors from Gaza who have been held without charge for more than a year.
Reports of torture and abuse in Israeli detention facilities have surged since October 2023 under the oversight of the far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Israeli human rights monitor B'Tselem said in 2024 Ben-Gvir had transformed the prison system into a "network of torture camps" where thousands of Palestinians have been abused since the start of the war.
Around 9,400 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli prisons, including more than 1,300 "unlawful combatants".