Gaza, 17 March 2025 – Today marks 80 days since Israeli forces raided and forced Kamal Adwan Hospital out of service on 27 December 2024. During the raid, several healthcare workers and hospital administrators, wounded and sick patients, their companions, and other civilians were forcibly taken from the facility and placed in Israeli custody. 

Al Mezan has been providing legal aid and support to hundreds of Palestinians abducted from Gaza since the beginning of the ongoing genocide, including ten healthcare workers and administrative staff taken from Kamal Adwan Hospital during different raids on the medical facility. Among them, two were released as part of recent prisoner exchanges, one has been granted a lawyer visit, while all others remain in incommunicado detention or are subjected to enforced disappearance, in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.

Below is an update on their cases:

Al Mezan is currently representing Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, a paediatrician who was serving as the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital at the time of his abduction by Israeli forces on 27 December 2024. After 47 days of incommunicado detention, our lawyer was able to visit Dr. Abu Safiya on 11 February 2025 at Ofer Prison, located in the unlawfully occupied West Bank. During the visit, Dr. Abu Safiya described the various forms of torture and abuse he has endured, both during his abduction and throughout his arbitrary detention by Israeli forces and authorities.

Ali Al-Rantisi, a 39-year-old healthcare assistant, was taken on 27 December 2024 from Kamal Adwan Hospital and is currently being held in Ashkelon Prison—a grave violation of international humanitarian law that amounts to forcible transfer, as Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits the forcible transfer of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power. 

Ahed Abu Habl, a 46-year-old ambulance driver, Rani Al-Zein, a 30-year-old public relations officer, and Wisam Al-Sakani, a 39-year-old administrative staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital were all taken on 27 December 2024 and are currently being detained in Anatot Military Camp, located in unlawfully occupied and illegally annexed eastern Jerusalem.

Another healthcare assistant, 29-year-old Ayman Badr, who was also taken on 27 December 2024, is currently being detained and listed as ‘under investigation’.

Our lawyer has not yet been granted access to any of them, meaning they have all been held incommunicado for 80 days at the time of this report.

Al Mezan is also following the case of Nader Kamal Radwan, a 39-year-old healthcare assistant at the Indonesian Hospital, who was taken from Kamal Adwan Hospital on 25 October 2024. According to the last update we received from Israeli authorities, he was being held in Sde Teiman. However, our lawyer has not yet been granted access to visit him, meaning that he has been held incommunicado for 139 days at the time of this report.

Alarmingly, in two cases, the whereabouts of the individuals concerned remain unknown, as Israeli authorities deny holding them despite their documented abduction—in what amounts to enforced disappearance under international law. These cases involve two administrative staff members from Kamal Adwan Hospital: 41-year-old Abdullah Omar Abu Rayya, who was taken on 27 December 2024, and 42-year-old Mohammed Sabbah, who was taken on 27 November 2024.

Finally, two additional healthcare assistants abducted from Kamal Adwan Hospital, whose cases Al Mezan has been following, were released as part of a prisoner exchange under the ceasefire agreement. In the case of 23-year-old Abdelmonem Al-Sharafi, Israeli authorities provided no information about his whereabouts following his abduction on 27 December 2024. He remained forcibly disappeared for two months until his release on 27 February 2025. Similarly, 38-year-old Mohammed Al-Khatib was taken on 25 October 2024 and detained in Sde Teiman Military Camp. He was held incommunicado for 113 days before being released on 15 February 2025.

Aside from Ayman Badr and those effectively subjected to enforced disappearance, Dr. Abu Safiya, Ali Al-Rantisi, Ahed Abu Habl, Rani Al-Zein, Wisam Al-Sakani, Nader Radwan, and all other abducted healthcare workers and administrative staff represented by Al Mezan are being detained under the Unlawful Combatant Law—an apartheid law specifically designed to detain Palestinian residents of Gaza solely based on the suspicion of them being ‘unlawful combatants’. This designation has no legal basis under international humanitarian law and serves as a mechanism for indefinite arbitrary detention.

Since the beginning of the ongoing genocide, Israeli forces and authorities have extensively used this legal framework to detain thousands of Palestinian residents of Gaza without charges. The detention regime established by the amended Unlawful Combatants Law allows Palestinians to be imprisoned indefinitely without meaningful legal protections or judicial oversight and denies them access to lawyers and family for a prolonged time.

Al Mezan unequivocally condemns the ongoing arbitrary detention of medical personnel, healthcare workers, and hundreds of other Palestinian detainees under the Unlawful Combatants Law by Israeli authorities. This practice constitutes a flagrant violation of international human rights and humanitarian law. We once again reiterate our urgent call on the international community—particularly Israel’s enabling allies—to take immediate action to demand the unconditional release of all Palestinians unlawfully arrested and arbitrarily detained by Israeli authorities, including hundreds of healthcare workers.

The fact that our lawyer was able to visit Dr. Abu Safiya 47 days after his abduction is a testament to the leverage of meaningful international pressure. As we mark 80 days since the raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital, Al Mezan urges the international community to maintain and intensify its efforts to demand access to all Palestinian prisoners and detainees and to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all arbitrarily detained Palestinians.