U.N. experts demand release of Gaza doctor Hussam Abu Safiya after reports of ‘severe torture’

The Israeli government, military and prison service did not immediately respond to requests for comment, including on whether any charges have yet been made against Abu Safiya, whom the Israel Defense Forces have alleged without evidence held “a rank” within Hamas.

The U.N. experts said his detention continued to “appear to be flagrantly arbitrary.” They said they had been in contact with the Israeli government regarding his case, but did not expand further. They did not elaborate on the source of the reports they said they had received on his condition.

Abu Safiya’s family and the legal team representing him, both of which have previously said he reported being tortured, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Abu Safiya became a voice for besieged Palestinians in Gaza during Israel’s more than two-year assault on the enclave following the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. The doctor, whose son was killed during Israel’s offensive, made headlines around the world in December 2024 after footage captured the final moments before he was detained.

In the haunting video, Abu Safiya could be seen walking down a rubble-strewn road toward Israeli tanks, his white medical coat standing out in stark contrast against the debris surrounding him.

The Israeli military had initially denied Abu Safiya was in its custody, but later alleged without providing evidence that he had been involved in “terrorist activities” and held “a rank” in Hamas.

It has alleged that Hamas militants operated in the area of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of many across Gaza that the Israeli military attacked after claiming it was a hub of Hamas activity.

Abu Safiya’s son and colleagues, including at the Chicago-based nonprofit MedGlobal, have staunchly rejected the allegations against him. U.N. experts and human rights groups have accused Israel of a targeted destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system.

Before his detention, Abu Safiya was the lead physician in Gaza for MedGlobal, a Chicago-based organization that has partnered with local healthcare workers in Gaza for years and arranges medical missions to the enclave.

“I would say that his torture and imprisonment is unimaginable,” John Kahler, a co-founder of MedGlobal who has worked alongside Abu Safiya during visits to Gaza, told NBC News on Wednesday. But “unfortunately it isn’t,” said Kahler, pointing to a growing body of reports of alleged abuse suffered by Palestinians held under Israeli custody.

“Dr. Abu Safiya committed the unforgivable ‘crime’ of standing up for his patients over and over,” he said, adding that instead of a prisoner, he should be seen as a “beacon of moral clarity for the world.”

“I don’t really have many words to describe the anger that sort of builds up knowing that he’s still languishing away in these prisons,” said Dr. Thaer Ahmad, an emergency physician who serves as a board member for the Palestinian American Medical Association and who worked alongside Abu Safiya prior to the war in Gaza.

He said in a phone interview that it was “ridiculous” for Israel to suggest Abu Safiya was “working in a pediatric ICU by day and that at night he’s some military warrior” and accused Israeli authorities of conflating work under Gaza’s health ministry, which would have been run by Hamas as the ruling authority in the territory, with the group’s militant operations.

After Abu Safiya’s detention was previously upheld by an Israeli court in March of last year, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, which was representing the detained doctor, maintained his innocence, saying in a news release that he was “solely performing medical and administration duties at Kamal Adwan Hospital.”

There had been hopes that Abu Safiya might be released in the final exchange of hostages held in Gaza for the freedom of Palestinians held by Israel at the start of the current ceasefire. But his family saw their hopes dashed when it was announced in October that his detention had been extended, without charge.

Dozens of Palestinian healthcare workers are believed to remain in Israeli custody, while six are known to have died in detention since Oct. 7, 2023, according to Healthcare Workers Watch, an initiative that documents detentions from Gaza. As many as 1,200 healthcare workers were killed overall under Israel’s offensive in the enclave as of Feb. 2025, according to the organization.

Those who remain held in Israeli custody are among more than 9,400 people detained by Israel as of this month, including more than 3,400 held under “administrative detention,” according to data published by HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization.

Under the widely condemned practice, Israeli authorities hold people indefinitely without trial or other usual legal proceedings, often based on alleged secret evidence they do not share with detainees, their families or legal representatives.