Israeli NGO warns Gaza hospital director’s life is in danger in detention

Israeli NGO warns Gaza hospital director’s life is in danger in detention An Israeli medical NGO has warned that the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza faces a grave risk to his life after months in Israeli detention. Physicians for Human Rights Israel said Abu Safia’s lawyer, Nasser Odeh, visited him at the underground Rakefet interrogation facility in Nitzan Prison and reported a sharp decline in his health “to the point of tangible danger to his life”. The organisation called for his “immediate transfer from the facility and an urgent judicial visit to assess his condition – before it’s too late”. Israeli forces seized Abu Safia on 27 December 2024 during a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital. Israel has held him since then under its “Unlawful Combatant Law”, legislation passed in 2002 that allows indefinite detention without formal charges and denies detainees protections under the Geneva Conventions. Abu Safia had refused Israeli forced displacement orders to leave the hospital, choosing instead to remain with his patients. He became widely known for video appeals urging the world to stop Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s medical facilities.