Al Mezan Center for Human Rights reported in a statement that "the court held its session on Thursday morning to consider the extension, with Abu Safia appearing via video conference, before issuing the decision to extend his detention for six months under the Unlawful Combatant Law."
He added, "A lawyer from the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights attended the session and filed an objection, arguing that his detention was unlawful, given the lack of evidence to convict him. Therefore, there is no indictment, making the detention illegal."
The center condemned the extension decision, considering it a "violation of international law and rules protecting medical personnel, in addition to being an infringement of fair trial guarantees."
He pointed out that "no indictment has been filed against the doctor, and he has been denied the right to defend himself, including discussing the evidence against him and presenting rebuttal evidence. This renders him a hostage arbitrarily held by Israel, without any legal basis or fair judicial procedures, in flagrant violation of the most basic standards of human rights and international humanitarian law."
Amnesty International
For its part, Amnesty International called on Israel on Thursday to release Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safia, who is being held in its prisons.
The organization published a sample letter addressed to Israeli Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi, demanding the immediate release of Abu Safia.
"Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital and a prominent voice in the devastated healthcare sector in the Gaza Strip, remains arbitrarily detained by the Israeli authorities since his arrest on 27 December," Amnesty International said in a statement above the letter template.
A lawyer who visited Abu Safia and other detainees said he was "subjected to abuse and other forms of ill-treatment."
The lawyer added that Abu Safia "appeared to have lost significant weight, as the Israeli Prison Service continues to impose severe restrictions on Palestinian detainees' access to food, adequate medical care, and personal hygiene."
The organization stated that Abu Safia "tirelessly ran Kamal Adwan Hospital, providing essential healthcare to children and witnessing the collapse of Gaza's healthcare sector under the weight of Israel's genocidal campaign."
She added that he "continued his work despite the tragedy he suffered after his son was killed in an Israeli airstrike," noting that he "was detained while caring for his patients and performing his medical duties, as happened to many healthcare workers before him."
The organization emphasized that "Dr. Abu Safia's arrest and continued arbitrary detention without charge or trial—based on the abusive Unlawful Combatants Law—represents Israel's systematic targeting of Palestinian health workers and its destruction of the health care system in Gaza, with the aim of imposing living conditions intended to physically destroy Palestinians."
Abu Safia family
In turn, the Hamas Prisoners' Media Office quoted Abu Safia's family as saying, "The occupation has extended Dr. Abu Safia's administrative detention for an additional six months."
The family expressed "deep concern over his continued detention without any charge or fair trial," stressing that "the extension of his detention constitutes a significant psychological and human burden on them, his colleagues, and his loved ones around the world."Abu Safiya was arrested on December 27, 2024, after the Israeli occupation forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip and forced him out at gunpoint, having destroyed the hospital and put it out of service.
With American support, Israel began a two-year genocide in Gaza on October 8, 2023, leaving 67,967 martyrs and 170,179 wounded, most of them children and women, and a famine that claimed the lives of 463 Palestinians, including 157 children.
