Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a 52-year-old Palestinian physician, has endured a full year of administrative detention in Israeli custody without formal charges or a trial. His arrest occurred on December 27, 2024, when Israeli military forces conducted a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, an operation that culminated in the facility’s forced evacuation and subsequent incapacitation.
Dr. Abu Safiya is being detained under Israel’s ‘illegal combatant’ statute, a legal framework that permits indefinite imprisonment without charging individuals and denies them access to evidence presented against them. An Israeli court in Beersheba has twice extended his detention—first in March 2025 and again in October 2025—sanctioning his continued imprisonment absent any criminal charges.
Allegations of severe mistreatment have emerged from his family and human rights advocates. Incarcerated within the notorious Ofer prison, Dr. Abu Safiya is reported to have lost over 30% of his body weight, endured brutal physical assaults, and been systematically denied medical attention. His pre-existing health conditions, which include heart disease, hypertension, vision impairment, and scabies, have reportedly gone untreated, with no specialist medical assessment provided.
In response, the Palestinian Forum in Britain has initiated the ‘Red Ribbons Campaign,’ advocating for his immediate release alongside that of over 9,100 other Palestinians currently detained in Israeli prisons, a population reported to include more than 450 women and children. The campaign held a public vigil in London to highlight his case and decry the systemic practice of mass detention.
Dr. Abu Safiya had remained at his post in Kamal Adwan Hospital through repeated Israeli assaults, refusing to abandon his patients and colleagues. His eldest son, Ilyas, who spoke to Al Jazeera after the family fled to Kazakhstan, stated that his father’s sole ‘crime’ was his dedication as a medical professional. The family’s tragedy was compounded when Israeli shelling killed Ilyas’s 20-year-old brother, Ibrahim, inside the hospital on October 26, 2024.