The detained Gazan doctor was severely beaten in an Israeli prison, the lawyer said.

Abu Safia is the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, where he treats patients and runs the hospital as the area comes under “total siege” by Israeli forces, the United Nations said.

In the year In December 2024, he was arrested when the Israeli army ordered patients and medical staff to leave the hospital, saying it was a “Hamas terrorist haven.” At the time, the World Health Organization called for an end to the attacks on Gaza hospitals.

Footage released at the time showed Abu Safia walking towards an Israeli armored vehicle in his white doctor’s coat before being taken for examination.

In a statement to the BBC, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said that they were arrested on suspicion of terrorist acts and held by Hamas.

Abu Safia held the rank of colonel in the health department of Gaza’s Hamas Ministry of Interior, an agency that provides medical care for security and police officers and their families.

However, medical professionals and international aid groups who were working with Abu Safia also deny that they cooperated with Hamas.

He was arrested under the Unlawful Combatants Act, which gives the military the power to detain Gazans without charge for an indefinite period of time who are suspected of posing a security threat.

Israel’s prison service has previously come under fire for its treatment of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, which it denies.

In November 2025 The United Nations Committee on Torture announced He was deeply concerned by reports indicating a “systematic and widespread policy of torture and ill-treatment” of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

In the same month Israel-based human rights group Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said. At least 94 Palestinian prisoners and detainees have died in Israeli custody in less than two years.

The Israeli Prison Service told the BBC that the allegations made by the lawyer’s list about Abu Safia were false and unfounded.

For privacy and security reasons, he did not provide information such as the conditions of detention, place of detention and health conditions, but said that all detainees and prisoners are detained according to the law and receive treatment according to the guidelines of the Ministry of Health.

The IPS also denied allegations of ill-treatment, torture, starvation or denial of medical treatment.

Statements have been issued from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International calling for action in Abu Safia’s case, which a spokesman described as “truly appalling”. PHRI said he should be transferred immediately, given urgent treatment and visited by a judge.

PHRI also filed a petition with the Supreme Court demanding the release of Abu Safia and 13 other Palestinian doctors from Gaza who are being held without charge in Israel.

On Monday, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions accepted that Israel’s detention of Abu Safia was arbitrary and called for his immediate release.

A group of independent experts said the case was one of those that “may indicate widespread or systematic arbitrary detention in the country.”

The BBC has contacted the Israeli Prison Service for comment on the task force’s findings.