Gaza Genocide15 July, 20263 min read
Israel Detains Gaza Doctors Hassan Khalil Almukayed and Hussam Abu Safiya Without Charge
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Hassan Khalil Almukayed detained without charge by Israel since Oct 2024. Hussam Abu Safiya detained since Dec 2024 without charges; health deteriorating.
Al Jazeera was read line by line by the Watchdog: 2.6. See the score →
Doctors detained after raids
Al Jazeera reported that Nadia Almukayed last saw her husband, Dr Hassan Khalil Almukayed, inside Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza before he was detained by Israel, with the family later trapped inside the hospital as Israeli forces intensified their assault on northern Gaza. Al Jazeera said Hassan Almukayed is one of at least 15 Palestinian doctors from Gaza currently in Israeli detention, and it quoted Nadia saying, “We could not evacuate northern Gaza quickly.” The same Al Jazeera account said Hassan was initially taken to Sde Teiman detention camp for seven months and that his arrest is dated to October 25, 2024 by Naji Abbas of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI).
Al Jazeera also reported that Hassan was transferred in June last year to Ktziot, also known as Negev Prison, where nearly all the other Palestinian doctors are held, while the family did not yet know that Khalil Almukayed is dead. In parallel, CBC reported that Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, has been detained without charge since December 2024 and that his sister Samahir Abu Safiya said, “This photo was a shock to the entire family.”
Pressure grows over abuse
Haaretz said nearly 50 German lawmakers joined international calls on Israel to grant immediate access to medical care to Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, describing him as being held in an Israeli prison without trial and “reportedly in life-threatening condition.”
CBC quoted Samahir Abu Safiya saying, “We were extremely shocked by it. We didn't expect my brother to be in this condition,” after Abu Safiya appeared via video link in June noticeably more frail and thinner.
CBC also reported that lawyer Nasser Odeh said Abu Safiya told him, “This is the last time you’ll see me … they brought me here to kill me.”
BBC reported that lawyer Nasser Awwda and Physicians for Human Rights Association warned Abu Safiya faced an “imminent danger to his life” after being moved to the underground investigations section 'Rikift' at the Nitzan prison in Ramla.
BBC further stated that the Israeli Prison Service rejected the account as 'false,' while the Supreme Court ordered the government to respond by Tuesday to a petition seeking Abu Safiya’s release and the release of 13 other Palestinian doctors from Gaza detained in Israel without charges.
Legal detention and stakes
Daily Sabah said Palestine’s mission to the U.N. urged urgent international intervention to secure the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, warning his health has seriously deteriorated while in Israeli custody and citing that he has been held without charge or trial since Dec. 27, 2024.
Daily Sabah quoted Ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi saying Abu Safiya had been subjected to torture, solitary confinement, ill-treatment and denial of adequate medical care, and it added that U.N. special rapporteurs and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry had documented torture and warned his deteriorating condition placed his life at imminent risk.
France Palestine Solidarité reported that an Israeli court extended Abu Safiya’s detention under the Illegal Combatants Law without charges, and it quoted Physicians for Human Rights saying the Beersheba District Court approved the prolongation and rejected the defense’s request for immediate release.
The same France Palestine Solidarité account said the Illegal Combatants Law allows Israeli authorities to detain Gazan Palestinians for long periods without trial, and it warned Abu Safiya was held at Negev Prison “with no access to his medications or medical care, despite the deterioration of his health.”
Al Jazeera also framed the stakes for detained doctors by reporting that Hassan Almukayed and Abu Safiya were among Palestinian doctors who refused to leave dozens of newborn infants they were treating after the Israeli military ordered a forced evacuation of northern Gaza.