A court in Be’er Sheva has upheld an extended detention order on Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the former director of the consolidated hospital in Beit Lahia, continuing his imprisonment for an additional six months under the so-called “Unlawful Combatants Law”.

Dr Abu Safiya was taken from his post at the last functioning major facility in northern Gaza on 27 December 2024, when Israeli forces entered the hospital and rendered it inoperable. Since then he has remained behind bars without formal charges, trial or meaningful judicial review. 

His legal team reports a dramatic decline in his physical health: he has lost over one-third of his body weight during incarceration, suffers from untreated cardiac and dermatological conditions, and says he has been subjected to prolonged isolation, deprivation of daylight, and other degrading conditions. 

Supporters argue that his detention is emblematic of the wider dismantling of healthcare infrastructure in the north of the enclave, and that his removal from service and disappearance from view is part of a broader pattern of targeting medical personnel. The arrest and continuing detention of a figure who refused to evacuate his hospital as the surrounding area was devastated has become symbolic of the region’s eroded capacity to provide life-saving care.