UN inquiry urges release of Gaza hospital chief held by Israel since December 2024

A United Nations enquiry on midweek verbalised interest at reports of blackguard against a prominent Palestinian doctor seized by the Israeli military in Gaza in December 2024 and still being held in Israel, and urged his release.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, called for the immediate release of Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip.

Rights groups and Abu Safiya's lawyer have said his life is in imminent danger and that he continues to be held without charge, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel, an Israeli rights group.

"The actions of the Israeli Prison Service guards towards Palestinian detainees raise grave concerns of violations of international law that likely amount to international crimes. Dr. Abu Safiya’s medical condition is the direct result of these actions," the UN inquiry said in a statement.

An Israel Prison Service spokesperson said on Wednesday: "The allegations and characterizations described are false, outrageous and entirely without factual basis."

The spokesperson did not name Abu Safiya, but the IPS has previously rejected allegations that he and other doctors have been mistreated in prison.

On Monday, Abu Safiya's lawyer alleged his health was in danger and that he had been subjected to abuse daily. In June, Abu Safiya attended a Supreme Court hearing in Jerusalem via video link and appeared noticeably thinner in the face and around his abdomen.

The UN inquiry said the reported conduct of the Israeli authorities towards Abu Safiya reflects a broader pattern of violations that it identified in previous reports.

Hospital chief who became face of the struggle to treat patients in Gaza still held by Israel

In September 2025, it said Israeli authorities had committed genocide by targeting the health-care system and medical professionals in Gaza since October 2023, an accusation that Israel described as scandalous.

Israel has accused the inquiry of having a political agenda against the country and of diverging from its mandate and has declined to co-operate with it.

On Monday, a separate UN rights body called Israel's detention of Abu Safiya arbitrary and called for his immediate release.

In its finding, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said Israel's actions contravened multiple articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed at least seven Palestinians, including two children, aged 10 and six, in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to health officials.

Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed one person near a school in Gaza City. Twelve people were wounded in the two incidents. The Israeli military said it struck militants in Gaza City, but was unaware of casualties.

Another Israeli airstrike hit a tent for displaced people in the Mawasi area in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave, killing at least four people including a 10-year-old child.

Later on Wednesday, Palestinian health officials said a six-year-old boy was killed by Israeli gunfire in the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City. Another strike hit a vehicle westward of the city killing one person, medics said, taking Wednesday's death toll to at least seven.

Gaza stuck in ‘humanitarian purgatory’ 9 months into ceasefire

The Israeli military didn't immediately comment on any of those incidents.

Israel has repeatedly carried out strikes in Gaza since a U.S.-mediated ceasefire with Hamas was reached last October, saying it is targeting militants who threaten its forces or who took part in the October 2023 attack on Israel.

Hamas has accused Israel of violating the ceasefire. Nikolay Mladenov, U.S. President Donald Trump's appointed Board of Peace envoy to Gaza, has said both sides have violated the agreement.

Since the ceasefire took effect nine months ago, more than 1,070 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza, according to figures released by the two sides. Hamas does not disclose the number of its fighters killed.

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