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<\/p>\n Israel claims Gaza hospital chief Hussam Abu Safiya \u2018lawfully detained\u2019 despite UN alarm
\n \/node\/2650409\/middle-east<\/p>\n
\n Updated 10 July 2026 18:10 <\/p>\n
\n July 10, 2026 13:53 <\/p>\n
\n Israel claims Gaza hospital chief Hussam Abu Safiya \u2018lawfully detained\u2019 despite UN alarm\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s diplomatic mission in Geneva rejects reports that he suffered a life-threatening condition
\n UN rights experts this week said Abu Safiya’s arbitrary detention without charges or trial reflected Israel\u2019s systematic targeting of Palestinian health workers<\/p>\n
\n Updated 10 July 2026 18:10 <\/p>\n
\n AFP <\/p>\n
\n July 10, 2026 13:53 <\/p>\n
\n\tGENEVA: Israel said on Friday that the detention of a Gaza hospital director, who has been held since December 2024, was \u201clawful,\u201d and rejected reports that he suffered a life-threatening condition.
Hussam Abu Safiya \u201cis lawfully detained by Israel based on concrete intelligence,\u201d Israel\u2019s diplomatic mission in Geneva said on X, accusing him of being a colonel in Hamas.
\u201cAt no stage of his detention has he exhibited any indication of a life-threatening condition.\u201d
The statement came after a United Nations investigative team and several UN rights experts this week raised the alarm about the case.
The paediatrician and director of Gaza\u2019s Kamal Adwan Hospital rose to prominence in 2024 by posting about the dire conditions in his besieged hospital in Beit Lahia during a major Israeli offensive.
On December 27 that year, Israeli forces began an assault on the facility, labelling the only functioning hospital in northern Gaza at the time a Hamas \u201cterrorist center,\u201d and arresting dozens of medical staff, including Abu Safiya.
Four independent UN rights experts said in a statement on Tuesday that \u201cDr. Abu Safiya\u2019s ongoing arbitrary detention without charges or trial is a reflection of Israel\u2019s systematic targeting of Palestinian health workers.\u201d
The UN\u2019s independent Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on the rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories issued a separate statement on Wednesday voicing \u201cgrave concern at credible reports that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya… has been subjected to continued and severe abuse\u201d during his detention.
It called for his \u201cimmediate, unconditional and safe release\u201d and urged Israeli authorities to provide him immediate independent medical care.
The CoI, which has previously accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, maintained that the reported mistreatment of Abu Safiya fitted into that \u201cbroader pattern of violations.\u201d
The Israeli mission statement rejected that Abu Safiya had been arbitrarily detained and said he had managed the Kamal Adwan Hospital \u201cas one of Hamas\u2019s terror hubs.\u201d
The doctor, it added, \u201cexploited his position at the hospital to divert humanitarian resources intended for civilian needs toward terrorist purposes.\u201d
\u201cHis lawful detention is subject to regular administrative review and judicial oversight,\u201d it said, including by the Supreme Court last month.
The Israeli statement also said that \u201cno indications were found to support the claims raised regarding his condition.\u201d
Abu Safiya had been \u201cexamined by medical personnel upon his arrival at Nitzan Detention Center on June 24, 2026, and several times thereafter,\u201d it said.
He \u201cremains under continuous medical supervision and receives treatment in accordance with the professional determination of medical personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel claims Gaza hospital chief Hussam Abu Safiya \u2018lawfully detained\u2019 despite UN alarm \/node\/2650409\/middle-east Updated 10 July 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-534958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534958","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=534958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}