New York
\nA United Nations (UN) inquiry on Wednesday expressed concern at reports of abuse against a prominent Palestinian doctor seized by the Israeli military in Gaza in \u200bDecember 2024 and still being held in Israel and urged his release.
\nThe UN \u200cIndependent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, called for the immediate release of Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip.
\nRights groups and Abu Safiya\u2019s \u200blawyer have said his life is in imminent danger, and he continues to be \u200bheld without charge, according to the Physicians for Human Rights Israel, an Israeli rights group.
\n\u201cThe actions of the Israeli Prison Service guards towards Palestinian detainees raise grave concerns \u200bof violations of international law that likely amount to international crimes. Dr Abu Safiya\u2019s medical condition \u200bis the direct result of these actions,\u201d the UN inquiry said in a statement.
\nAn Israel Prison Service (IPS) spokesperson said on Wednesday, \u201cThe allegations and characterisations described are false, outrageous, and entirely without factual basis.\u201d
\nThe spokesperson did not \u200bname Abu Safiya, but the IPS has previously rejected allegations that he and other doctors have \u200bbeen mistreated in prison.
\nOn Monday, Abu Safiya\u2019s lawyer said that his health was in danger and that he \u200chad been subjected to abuse daily. In June, Abu Safiya attended a Supreme Court hearing in Jerusalem via video link and appeared noticeably thinner in the face and around his abdomen.
\nThe UN inquiry said the reported conduct of the Israeli authorities towards Abu Safiya reflects a broader pattern of violations \u200bthat it identified in \u200bprevious reports.
\nIn September 2025, it said the Israeli authorities had committed genocide by targeting the healthcare system and medical professionals in Gaza since October 2023, an accusation that \u200bIsrael described as scandalous.
\nIsrael has accused the inquiry of having a political \u200bagenda against the country and of diverging from its mandate and has declined to cooperate with it.
\nOn Monday, a separate UN rights body called Israel\u2019s detention of Abu Safiya arbitrary and called for his immediate release. In its \u200bfinding, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said \u200bIsrael\u2019s actions contravened multiple articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the International Covenant on Civil \u200band Political Rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New York A United Nations (UN) inquiry on Wednesday expressed concern at reports of abuse against a prominent Palestinian doctor seized by the Israeli military in Gaza in \u200bDecember 2024 and still being held in Israel and urged his release. The UN \u200cIndependent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":99994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100007,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99981\/revisions\/100007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}