By Dr Josie Shakur

Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has spent the last 18 months imprisoned by Israel without charge. During that time, reports from UN experts, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Amnesty International and many human rights organisations have described allegations of torture, repeated beatings, prolonged solitary confinement, denial of adequate medical care and severe physical abuse.

The latest reports are deeply alarming.

Following a prison visit on 2nd July, Dr Abu Safiya’s lawyer, Nasser Odeh, described a man so physically devastated that he initially struggled to recognise him. According to his affidavit, Dr Abu Safiya had fresh injuries to his head, eyes, ears and neck. He was struggling to breathe, too weak to remain seated without falling, and repeatedly appeared on the verge of losing consciousness.

Dr Abu Safiya told his lawyer he had been subjected to daily beatings since being transferred to the Rakefet interrogation facility, causing him to lose consciousness on several occasions without receiving appropriate medical care.

His reported words should haunt every healthcare professional, politician and citizen:

“This is the last time you will see me. They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving. This is the end.”

His lawyer concluded that his life is in immediate danger.

HW4 Palestine, Amnesty International , Human Rights Watch, UN Human Rights council, Doctors against Genocide, Hind Rajab Foundation, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and many others have called for an urgent independent medical examination, immediate intervention and Dr Abu Safiya’s release.

Dr Abu Safiya, a paediatrician, became the face of Gaza’s collapsing healthcare system. Throughout repeated assaults on Kamal Adwan Hospital, he refused to abandon his patients. Each time the hospital was raided or forced out of service, he and his colleagues fought to reopen it.

During the siege of northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan became the final functioning major hospital serving an estimated 75,000 people. Dr Abu Safiya continued treating the wounded, starving children, malnourished infants and critically ill patients while documenting the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding around him. Even after he himself was injured and after his son was killed, he refused to leave.

On 27th December 2024, Israeli forces raided the hospital once again, detained Dr Abu Safiya alongside staff and patients, and rendered the last major hospital in northern Gaza inoperable.

His case is not unique.

Hundreds of Palestinians, including healthcare workers, have been detained during the genocide, with many subjected to enforced disappearance and allegations of torture and other ill-treatment. Doctors including Dr Iyad al-Rantisi and Dr Adnan al-Bursh were killed in Israeli custody after their detention. Across Gaza, hospitals have been repeatedly attacked and the healthcare system has been systematically devastated despite the special protections afforded to medical facilities and personnel under international humanitarian law.

Medical neutrality is one of the oldest and most fundamental principles of medicine. It demands that healthcare workers are protected, not targeted; that hospitals are sanctuaries, not battlefields; and that doctors are never punished for treating the sick and injured.

When a doctor who dedicated his life to saving children is reportedly beaten, tortured, denied medical care and left fearing for his life, silence is not professional neutrality. It is a failure of moral leadership.

This is why Britain’s medical institutions must speak with one voice.

The Royal Colleges, the British Medical Association, the GMC, NHS leaders, universities, trade unions and every organisation claiming to uphold medical ethics should publicly demand the protection of healthcare workers wherever they are threatened. Their silence in the face of allegations concerning fellow clinicians undermines the universal principles upon which medicine is built.

The UK Government has clear responsibilities.

It should publicly call for the immediate protection and release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya; demand independent medical and legal access; press for a full, impartial investigation into allegations of torture and mistreatment; work to ensure accountability where international law has been violated; and ensure that the United Kingdom fully complies with its obligations under international humanitarian law and the Genocide Convention.

These are not partisan demands. They are demands rooted in the protection of human life, medical ethics and the rule of law.

Every day that passes without meaningful international action increases the risk that Dr Abu Safiya will become another doctor who does not survive detention.

History remembers those who defended humanity when it mattered most.

The question now is whether Britain’s Government and its medical profession will choose to stand with a doctor who risked everything for his patients—or remain silent while his lawyer warns that he may not survive.

Dr Josie Shakur is a Glasgow GP.

Image: c/o Labour Hub