A coalition of more than 800 doctors, nurses, and medical professionals across the United Kingdom has signed an open letter demanding urgent action from Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper to free Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a prominent Palestinian paediatrician whose life is in imminent danger after more than 550 days of Israeli captivity.
Dr. Abu Safiya served as the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, and rose to global attention during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza for his unwavering commitment to treating civilian victims of the conflict. When Israeli forces designated northern Gaza a combat zone and ordered all medical personnel to evacuate Kamal Adwan, the last fully functioning hospital in the region, he repeatedly refused to abandon his patients. Before Israeli troops stormed the facility, he documented near-daily attacks on the hospital in dozens of public videos and issued urgent pleas to the international community to intervene to stop the bombardment. During the raid on Kamal Adwan, Israeli forces detained 44 hospital staff, and a drone strike killed Dr. Abu Safiya’s son, Ibrahim. He himself was seized by Israeli forces on 27 December 2024, and has been held without charge or trial ever since.
The open letter, organized jointly by Amnesty International UK and NHS advocacy group Health Workers 4 Palestine, calls on Cooper to issue a clear, public demand for Dr. Abu Safiya’s immediate release and deploy every economic, political, and diplomatic tool at the UK government’s disposal to secure his freedom. It draws on first-hand testimony from a visit by a lawyer with Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) to Dr. Abu Safiya’s detention site on 2 July, which revealed severe bruising and torture marks covering the doctor’s head and body. The practitioner has been left severely weakened and is barely recognizable to visitors.
PHRI’s additional reporting confirms that since his transfer to the Rakevet underground detention wing within Israel’s Ayalon Prison complex in Ramla, Dr. Abu Safiya has been subjected to daily beatings. He has been held in solitary confinement since last month, and has been repeatedly denied access to necessary medical care, despite living with multiple chronic health conditions. In a devastating message relayed through his lawyer, Dr. Abu Safiya warned, “This is the last time you’ll see me… they brought me here to kill me.”
His son Elias has echoed this warning in an emotional public appeal, urging governments, global humanitarian bodies, and people across the world to intervene immediately to save his father’s life. “The world’s silence today could mean the loss of an innocent human life,” he said, noting his father is “living through critical moments between life and death.”
Kerry Moscogiuri, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, called out the injustice of Dr. Abu Safiya’s detention, saying he has been tortured to the edge of death solely for refusing to leave his patients behind. “The UK government must act now, publicly and forcefully, to secure his immediate release – before it’s too late,” Moscogiuri said.
Amira Nimerawi, CEO of Health Workers 4 Palestine, accused the British government of enabling what she called Dr. Abu Safiya’s slow death in Israeli custody by refusing to exercise political will to advocate for him and hundreds of other detained Palestinian health workers. “This is not an accident. It is the result of a system of detention designed to break him,” Nimerawi said.
Signatories to the letter emphasize that Dr. Abu Safiya’s arbitrary detention and abuse is not an isolated incident. They note that since October 2023, more than 400 other Gaza-based healthcare workers have been arbitrarily detained by Israeli forces, and more than 1,700 have been killed – an average of two to three deaths per day before the October 2025 ceasefire. UN experts have labeled this systematic targeting of medical personnel “medicide.” A UN report confirms Israeli forces have damaged or destroyed every hospital in Gaza, driving the enclave’s entire healthcare system to the brink of total collapse as part of a consistent pattern of attacks. The letter argues that under international law, healthcare workers and medical facilities are protected, and this routine targeting has deliberately inflated civilian casualties. When considered alongside Israel’s broader military actions in Gaza, the signatories say these attacks constitute evidence of genocidal intent.
Beyond the immediate call for Dr. Abu Safiya’s release, UK medical workers are urging the British government to pursue accountability for all arbitrary detentions and killings of Palestinian healthcare workers, including supporting ongoing investigations by the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, a professor of Conflict Medicine and a signatory to the letter, told Middle East Eye that the continued detention of Dr. Abu Safiya makes clear that the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system was never a side effect of the war – it was a core component of the genocidal campaign, and remains so today. Dr. Omar Abdel Mannan, an NHS paediatrician with 15 years of clinical experience in the UK and another signatory, added that a doctor who refused to abandon sick children is now being tortured to death while held without trial. “The foreign secretary has the power to act – she must publicly demand Dr Abu Safiya’s immediate release and back it with sanctions on Israel. Every day she doesn’t, his life hangs in the balance,” he said.
International calls for Dr. Abu Safiya’s release have grown exponentially since news of his deteriorating condition broke. Multiple protests have been held across the UK, including a large rally outside Downing Street where hundreds of human rights activists, medical workers, and political figures gathered to pressure the British government to intervene. A group of UN experts has also called for his immediate release, noting he was detained illegally under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law – a statute UN experts have long held violates international humanitarian and human rights law. On 16 June, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected Dr. Abu Safiya’s appeal against his detention, extending his detention without charge through at least October 2026. To date, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has not responded to requests for comment from Middle East Eye.