Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya is a pediatrician. He is a husband, a father, and, until Israeli forces seized him, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, one of the last functioning medical facilities in the region. He saved children’s lives. He stayed at his post when nearly everyone else had fled.

On December 27, 2024, he was arrested by Israeli soldiers as they forcibly evacuated the hospital. He was stripped, handcuffed, and forced to sit on sharp stones for approximately five hours. He was beaten with batons and electric shock sticks.  He was taken to the Sde Teiman military detention camp, then transferred to Ofer Prison. He remains there today.

As of July 2025, his lawyer reports that Dr. Abu Safiya has lost more than 40 kilograms (88 pounds and nearly half his body weight) since his arrest. On June 24, he was severely beaten at Ofer Prison, sustaining injuries to his ribs, face, and back. He has an irregular heartbeat and has repeatedly requested cardiology tests. Every request has been denied. He sits in solitary confinement, deprived of sunlight, still wearing winter clothes in the summer heat. His lawyer has warned that he and many other Palestinian detainees are in grave condition.

He has been held in administrative detention without trial or charge since December 2024. His detention has been extended multiple times under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law. This legal framework enables prolonged imprisonment without charges, stripping detainees of any meaningful judicial review or due process. 

His name was included on the list of Palestinian prisoners to be released under a ceasefire deal, but his name was arbitrarily removed by Israeli authorities without explanation. 

In March 2026, UN Special Rapporteurs called his detention “flagrantly arbitrary” and accused Israel of violating the Mandela Rules. These are the international standard guaranteeing prisoners access to health care.  Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders, Human Rights Watch, and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights have all called for his immediate release.

The United States provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel each year. That aid comes with leverage and responsibility, which Congress has failed to use. Congress has the authority and the obligation to demand that a doctor who committed no crime, charged with nothing, tortured and starved in a prison cell, be freed.

We call on the U.S. Congress and federal government to:

 1. Publicly and formally demand the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya

 2. Condition future military assistance on Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law, including the protection of medical personnel

 3. Call for an independent investigation into the treatment of Palestinian health workers in Israeli detention

Doctors are not combatants. Hospitals are not military targets. Healing the sick is not a crime.

Free Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. Now.