Israel’s continued imprisonment of prominent Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya is "political, not legal" and keeping him behind bars despite mounting evidence of torture brings him "closer to death", Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) has told The New Arab , as Israel's Supreme Court ordered the government to justify his detention.
Israel's Supreme Court on Sunday ordered the state to respond, by Tuesday, to a petition demanding the release of 14 Palestinian doctors detained from Gaza and held without charge.
The petition, filed by Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), calls for the release of Abu Safiya, the renowned director of Kamel Adwan Hospital . Rights organisations have repeatedly warned that his health has severely deteriorated while being held in solitary confinement and subjected to abuse by Israeli prison guards.
Aseel Baidoun, Medical Aid for Palestinians' Deputy Director of Advocacy and Communications, told The New Arab that if Israel extends Abu Safiya's imprisonment, it would push him closer to death and further demonstrate that his detention was arbitrary.
"Under international law, doctors are meant to be protected, not punished, for treating patients," Baidoun said. "To hold a Palestinian doctor without charge, on secret allegations, while credible reports describe severe torture and life-threatening conditions, is a direct assault on that protection and on the absolute prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."
Baidoun added that the UK was not a distant observer to what was happening to Abu Safiya and other Palestinian doctors held in Israeli detention.
"[The UK] continues to trade, arm, and diplomatically shield Israel while knowing full well about patterns of arbitrary detention, torture, and attacks on healthcare workers. When a government is repeatedly informed of grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, yet carries on with business as usual, it moves from being a spectator to being part of the machinery that enables those crimes," she said.
"The UK has concrete levers: it supplies weapons and components, signs trade deals, and offers political cover in international forums. Choosing to keep those levers in place, instead of using them to stop abuses, is not neutrality - it is a decision to prioritise strategic ties over Palestinian lives, and it directly sustains Israeli impunity," Baidoun continued.
MAP called on the UK to take immediate action by ensuring Israel abides by the ceasefire, imposing an embargo on arms to Israel, suspending trade agreements and publicly backing international accountability efforts.
The organisation stressed that the case sets a dangerous precedent, with a civilian paediatrician and hospital director being held indefinitely without charge on secret allegations despite mounting evidence of torture and life-threatening ill-treatment, and despite repeated calls from UN experts and rights organisations for his immediate release.
“From every conceivable angle, the reason he is being kept in prison is political, not legal. Israel has treated him as a bargaining chip in ceasefire negotiations, explicitly excluding him from release deals, and appears determined to punish a prominent Palestinian doctor who documented the destruction of Gaza’s health system and continued treating patients under siege,” Baidoun said. Israel ordered to respond The petition seeking the release of Abu Safiya and 13 other Palestinian doctors was first submitted on 30 April.
Since then, the Israeli government has repeatedly sought extensions to delay responding to the case, requests the Supreme Court has granted.
After the government sought yet another postponement, the court on Sunday ordered it to submit its response by Tuesday.
The deadline comes as rights groups continue to warn that Abu Safiya's life is in imminent danger.
Following a recent prison visit, his lawyer, Nasser Odeh, said the 53-year-old was barely recognisable because of the injuries he had sustained in Israeli detention.
In a statement to The New Arab , PHRI said "it became clear that Dr. Abu Safiya had been subjected to severe and repeated beatings and was suffering from serious injuries that made it difficult for his lawyer to recognise him".
The organisation said it had asked a Supreme Court justice hearing the case to visit Abu Safiya personally in their capacity as an official prison visitor, alongside a cardiologist and legal team, to assess his condition and prevent irreversible harm.
Tuesday's deadline marks the Israeli government's final opportunity to justify the continued detention of Abu Safiya and the other doctors before the court considers the release petition.
Israeli forces detained Abu Safiya during a military raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital on 27 December 2024.
Last month, his son told The New Arab that one of his greatest fears was his father dying in Israeli custody. He said seeing Abu Safiya appear virtually before an Israeli court, visibly weakened and suffering from skin diseases, had left the family heartbroken.
Since launching its war on Gaza in October 2023, which leading human rights organisations have characterised as genocide, Israel has detained at least 612 healthcare workers across Gaza and the occupied West Bank. At least five have died in Israeli detention.