Gaza, 15 October 2025 – Al Mezan is extremely worried about the arbitrary detention of Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, a Palestinian paediatrician and the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital. Dr. Abu Safiya was not included in the group of Palestinians prisoners and detainees released by Israel as part of the recent ceasefire agreement, raising the alarm that his detention is likely to be extended once again under Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law.

Tomorrow, 16 October 2025, at 9:30 a.m. (Palestine time), the Bir al-Sabi’ District Court is scheduled to hold a closed-door hearing to extend Dr. Abu Safiya’s arbitrary detention for an additional six months. Dr. Abu Safiya will participate via video from Ofer Prison, where he is currently detained.

The prolonged detention without charges of Dr. Abu Safiya, amid documented accounts of torture, inhumane detention conditions, and the absence of any indication of release, indicates that he is being held as a hostage. Al Mezan warns that Israel may be using his detention, along with that of thousands of other Palestinians, as political leverage in ongoing ceasefire negotiations. Such use of Palestinian prisoners and detainees as bargaining cheaps constitutes hostage-taking under international humanitarian law (IHL).

Dr. Abu Safiya, who is represented by Al Mezan's attorney, was abducted by Israeli forces along with several of his colleagues and other civilians on 27 December 2024 from Kamal Adwan Hospital. They were kidnapped during Israel's raid of the the medical facility following repeated attacks on it and its surrounding during the 2024 ground invasion of northern Gaza. He was initially held at Sde Teiman, a military detention camp notorious for systematically torturing Palestinians, until 9 January 2025 and then transferred to Ofer Prison on 11 February 2025. On 25 March 2025, the Be’er Sheva District Court upheld and extended Dr. Abu Safiya's detention for six months under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, without charge.

When Al Mezan's lawyer was finally able to visit him in February 2025, after 47 days of being denied legal counsel, Dr. Abu Safiya confirmed that he was subject to torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment. He recounted being forcibly stripped by Israeli authorities at Sde Teiman, made to sit on sharp gravel for hours, and severely beaten by Israeli soldiers with batons and electric prods. At Ofer Prison, Dr. Abu Safiya spent 25 days in solitary confinement and interrogated for 10 days straight. Over the first two month of detention, his health declined significantly as he endured torture, starvation, and inhumane living conditions while also continuously being denied medical attention by Israel.

Dr. Abu Safiya's experience mirrors the experience of thousands of Palestinian residents of Gaza that have been arbitrarily detained by Israeli authorities since October 2023. Their is made through Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law, which Al Mezan considers to be a gross violation of international human rights law (IHRL) and IHL. Under this law, Israel unjustifiably categorizes all Palestinians taken by Israeli forces during mass detention raids in Gaza as 'enemy combatants'. The law is used to strip Palestinian residents of Gaza from the various protections that they are entitled to as civilians living in occupied territory under in international law.

Al Mezan firmly condemns the continued use of Unlawful Combatants Law by Israeli authorities to illegally detain Palestinians without charges or due process and considers it a gross violation of both IHRL and IHL. The international community must take immediate action and exert meaningful pressure on Israel to end its systematic and widespread use of arbitrary detention and the unlawful holding of Palestinians as hostages while torturing, starving, and subjected to other forms of cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment. States must demand the immediate and unconditional release of all Palestinians held without charges or fair trial, ensure full access to independent monitoring mechanisms to places of detention, and hold Israeli authorities accountable for grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.