Ikrame Imane Kouachi<\/p>\n
19 August 2026\u2022Update: 19 August 2026<\/p>\n
The Israeli Prison Service on Wednesday barred Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi from visiting detained Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya in line with the hardline policies of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, according to Tibi\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrison authorities prevented MK Dr. Ahmad Tibi, head of the Arab Movement for Change, from meeting Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip, who is being held in Israeli prisons,\u201d Tibi\u2019s office said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The Israeli authorities have been holding Abu Safiya since late December 2024 amid its ongoing genocidal war on the Gaza Strip that began on Oct. 8, 2023.<\/p>\n
According to Tibi\u2019s office, the decision to bar Tibi from visiting Abu Safiya was made in line with Ben-Gvir\u2019s policy of preventing Knesset members from visiting Palestinian detainees whom Israel classifies as \u201csecurity prisoners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tibi had formally requested permission to visit Abu Safiya and assess his wellbeing \u2013 and the conditions of his detention \u2013 after attending an Israeli Supreme Court hearing on a petition requesting Abu Safiya\u2019s release.<\/p>\n
According to Tibi\u2019s office, the Israeli Prison Service rejected the request.<\/p>\n
\u201cPreventing me from meeting Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is a purely political decision issued by Ben-Gvir, who has been convicted of supporting terrorism,\u201d Tibi said.<\/p>\n
Abu Safiya, Tibi added, \u201cis a doctor and hospital director who was detained after remaining alongside his patients during one of the most difficult periods the health sector in Gaza has ever experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n
In late November 2024, Abu Safiya was injured in an Israeli strike on Gaza\u2019s Kamal Adwan Hospital, but refused to leave the facility and continued treating patients and the wounded.<\/p>\n
A month later, he was detained when Israeli forces stormed the hospital and forced him \u2013 at gunpoint \u2013 to leave.<\/p>\n
Tibi also condemned the recent detention of Dima Barqat, a Palestinian obstetrics and gynecology specialist, who was detained early Tuesday after Israeli forces raided her home in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe arrest of Dr. Dima Barqat from her home, along with the continued detention of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and around 100 other medical personnel, is condemnable and deeply concerning,\u201d Tibi said.<\/p>\n
Israel is currently holding some 9,400 Palestinian prisoners, including 94 women and more than 350 children, according to Palestinian figures.<\/p>\n
Both Palestinian and Israeli rights groups have said that Palestinian prisoners face torture, starvation and medical neglect \u2013 conditions that have led to dozens of deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ikrame Imane Kouachi 19 August 2026\u2022Update: 19 August 2026 The Israeli Prison Service on Wednesday barred Arab Knesset…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43,180804],"class_list":["post-589548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-sitekeywords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589548","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=589548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}