From the Liveblog of
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Israeli rights group asks court to release 14 Gazan doctors held without charge for over a year
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An Israeli rights organization petitions the Supreme Court to demand the immediate release of 14 Palestinian doctors from Gaza who have been held without charge for more than a year.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) say the doctors have been denied adequate medical care and food and subjected to physical abuse while in detention. The group says they are being held under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows for indefinite detention without charge.
“The Israeli army already investigated them and despite the lack of any evidence incriminating them… (prosecutors) decided to continue their detention,” says lawyer Nasser Odeh, who represents Hussam Abu Safiya, the detained director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Israel’s Prison Service tells Reuters it rejected all allegations that the doctors had been mistreated in prison. It was not immediately clear if or when the court would hear the petition.
In February, a decades-old photo resurfaced of Abu Safiya wearing a Hamas uniform alongside other senior officers in the terror group.
Abu Safiya holds the rank of colonel in Hamas’s Military Medical Services, according to the MMS and Palestinian media reports. The MMS is separate from Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, though its members directly participated in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror onslaught in southern Israel.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.