{"id":495510,"date":"2026-06-16T12:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/495510\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T12:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:20:14","slug":"supreme-court-rejects-appeal-of-gaza-hospital-chief-a-hamas-officer-detained-by-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/495510\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court rejects appeal of Gaza hospital chief, a Hamas officer detained by Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of Gaza hospital chief Hussam Abu Safiya, a Hamas officer, against his ongoing detention, ruling that under the law for unlawful combatants Israel can continue to hold him without charges.<\/p>\n<p>The text of the decision and its reasoning will not be released, as it was based on classified intelligence. The case was heard behind closed doors, and Abu Safiya and his lawyer were not privy to the confidential materials on which the decision was based.<\/p>\n<p>Abu Safiya, who runs Gaza\u2019s Kamal Adwan Hospital, was<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/idf-completes-raid-on-north-gaza-hospital-says-some-240-terror-suspects-arrested\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> arrested by Israeli forces<\/a> during the war in Gaza in December 2024 and is one of the most prominent Gazan detainees. He is being held in solitary confinement and rights groups have called for his release.<\/p>\n<p>He holds the rank of colonel in the Hamas Military Medical Services, according to the service itself and Palestinian media reports. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/resurfaced-photo-shows-detained-gaza-hospital-director-wearing-hamas-uniform\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">photograph from 2016<\/a> showing him wearing a Hamas uniform and sitting next to senior members of the terror group emerged after his arrest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe rejection of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya\u2019s appeal and his continued detention without charge represent a profound moral and legal failure,\u201d said Naji Abbas, director of the Prisoners and Detainees Department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel, following the rejection of the appeal.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel&#8217;s Daily Edition<br \/>\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">terms<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cRather than upholding the fundamental principles of the rule of law and due process, the court has endorsed the indefinite detention of a hospital director who remains in solitary confinement while suffering from medical conditions that are not receiving appropriate treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/static-cdn.toi-media.com\/www\/uploads\/2024\/12\/9b3a1616-042e-40d5-aad2-ee2d1ff873e9.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3448993\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/9b3a1616-042e-40d5-aad2-ee2d1ff873e9-640x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tPalestinians evacuate from northern Gaza\u2019s Kamal Adwan Hospital, in a handout photo issued by the military on December 29, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)<\/p>\n<p>During a visit by lawyers from Physicians for Human Rights Israel on June 4, the lawyers learned that Abu Safiya had been placed in solitary confinement. The Israel Prison Service has declined to say why he was moved to solitary.<\/p>\n<p>Abu Safiya\u2019s lawyer said he is being held in Nafha Prison \u201cunder harsh detention conditions\u201d and claimed he is being denied \u201cnecessary medical care despite his deteriorating health.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His legal team has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/lawyers-for-detained-gaza-hospital-chief-claim-he-was-abused-in-israeli-custody\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">also said<\/a> that, in the wake of his arrest, he was subjected to severe abuse at the Sde Teiman military base.<\/p>\n<p>Israel currently holds over 1,300 Palestinian detainees under the terms of the law for unlawful combatants, in a practice known as administrative detention.<\/p>\n<p>Such detainees include those arrested by the IDF and security services inside Gaza during military operations but who have not been charged with a crime.<\/p>\n<p>The measure sees individuals held without charge for up to six months at a time, under limited court review. The detentions can be renewed indefinitely while allowing military prosecutors to keep suspects from being able to see the evidence against them.<\/p>\n<p>The tool is typically used when authorities have intelligence tying a suspect to a crime but do not wish to reveal the source of the information.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tWe can&#8217;t do this work alone.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_5258-200x200.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-square size-square wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n<p>There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n<p>As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can&#8217;t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. 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Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of Gaza hospital chief Hussam Abu Safiya, a Hamas officer,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[88597,228251,69,51,42,838,228253,43,228252,46773,4320,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-495510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-administrative-detention","tag-boukamal","tag-gaza-strip","tag-hamas","tag-headlines","tag-israel-prison-service","tag-nafha-prison","tag-news","tag-physicians-for-human-rights-israel","tag-security-prisoners","tag-supreme-court","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}