Lawyers for detained Gaza hospital chief claim he was abused in Israeli custody

Lawyers for a Gazan hospital director claimed Tuesday that he was subject to repeated physical abuse during his ongoing detention in Israel.

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, a Palestinian rights group representing detained doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, said that his lawyer visited him in Ofer Prison on Tuesday afternoon, for the first time since his December arrest.

The group claimed that the Israel Defense Forces held Abu Safiya at the Sde Teiman detention facility before transferring him to his current location in Ofer Prison on January 9, where he was reportedly placed in solitary confinement for 25 days.

While in Sde Teiman, Abu Safiya was subject to “severe physical abuse, including beatings with batons and electric shock sticks, as well as repeated blows to the chest,” the rights group said.

He also described being “forcibly stripped, having his hands tightly shackled and being made to sit on sharp gravel for approximately five hours by Israeli forces,” it added in the statement.

The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the claims.

Located near the Gaza border, the Sde Teiman military base has been the focus of several probes amid reports of widespread misconduct and abuse. Earlier this month, an IDF reservist who served as a guard at the facility was sentenced to seven months behind bars for abusing Palestinian detainees.

Israel detained Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, along with nearly 240 others during a raid on the medical facility in December 2024, alleging that Hamas was using it as a command center.

The military said it suspects Abu Safiya of being a Hamas member.

Israel has been at war with Hamas since October 7, 2023, when the terror group that rules Gaza led an invasion of southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to the Strip.

It has long accused Hamas of fighting from within civilian structures, including hospitals.

In January, the IDF confirmed Abu Safiya’s detention, but did not specify where he was being held. Two former Sde Teiman detainees told CNN that month that they had seen him arrive at the facility in “poor condition.”

According to Al Mezan’s statement, Abu Safiya was interrogated for 10 consecutive days regarding his alleged ties to Hamas and “firmly denied” the accusations, “stressing that he is a doctor whose sole duty is to provide medical care to patients and the wounded.”

There have been several probes of IDF soldiers on suspicion of abusing Palestinian detainees, including a conviction last week.