Prison Service doesn’t comment on reports of Abu Safiya in solitary, says it works based on ‘professional’ factors

Responding to reports that Hussam Abu Safiya — a Hamas officer and director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital — was moved to solitary confinement, the Israel Prison Service says that it “determines the place of detention of prisoners and detainees in accordance with professional, operational and security considerations, and based on assessments by the authorized professional bodies.”

“We will not comment on considerations relating to the placement or detention conditions of any specific detainee,” the statement added.

Abu Safiya was arrested by Israel during the war in Gaza in December 2024. He is one of the highest-profile Gazan detainees, and human rights groups, including Physicians for Human Rights Israel, which reported that Abu Safiya was in solitary, have called for his release.

Following his arrest, a decade-old photo surfaced showing him wearing Hamas uniforms alongside senior members of the terror group. Abu Safiya holds the rank of colonel in the terror group’s Military Medical Services, according to the service and Palestinian media reports.

The Military Medical Services 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, which sparked the Gaza war.

According to Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Dr. Abu Safiya is one of 14 Palestinian doctors from Gaza currently detained in Israel without having been indicted. In April, the organization filed a petition to the High Court of Justice demanding their release, and proceedings in the case are ongoing.