From Lawyers for detained Gaza hospital chief say he was abused in Israeli custody
Lawyers for Gaza hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya claim in a statement that he was subject to repeated abuse while in Israeli custody.
The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, a Palestinian rights group representing the detained doctor, says that his lawyer visited him yesterday in Ofer Prison for the first time since his December arrest. The group claims that the IDF 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 says.
The IDF has not yet responded 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.
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 shelter from Israeli strikes.
The military said it suspects Abu Safiya of being a Hamas terrorist.
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.”
