From the Liveblog of
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Lawyers say detained Gaza hospital director still in Israeli custody, despite reports he would be freed
Despite reports predicting he would go free in yesterday’s prisoner release as part of the hostage deal, detained Gaza hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya remains in Israeli custody, according to his lawyers.
The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, a Gaza-based Palestinian rights group representing Abu Safiya, says that Israeli authorities issued an order last week to detain the doctor without charges under a 2002 law dealing with unlawful combatants.
The decision comes after Abu Safiya’s lawyer visited him in Ofer Prison and claimed his client had been subjected to “torture and ill-treatment, including being held in solitary confinement for more than 20 days,” the group says in a statement.
Although Hebrew media reports claimed that Abu Safiya was one of the 333 Gazans slated for release yesterday, his name did not appear on the list distributed by Palestinian prisoners’ organizations.
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.
In its current form, the Unlawful Combatants Law permits high-ranking IDF officers to issue a temporary detention order against an inmate whose release could harm state security. The order must be ratified by a civilian court within 45 days, upon which it can last for up to six months before being renewed.
