The UN human rights organization calls for the release of a Palestinian doctor who has been arrested by Israel Israel-Palestine War News

Hussam Abu Safia’s family and lawyer say his life is in danger and he is showing signs of torture.

The United Nations human rights group is warning that the life of Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safia is in danger and is calling for his immediate release from “unlawful” Israeli prisons.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Israel’s actions violated several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

“The appropriate course would be to release (him) immediately and give him the right to receive compensation and other restitution, in accordance with international law,” it said.

The UN human rights watchdog said Abu Safia’s case was one of many it had investigated and “may reflect a widespread or systematic practice of unjustified detention”.

Abu Safia’s lawyer Nasser Odeh has warned that the doctor’s health is in grave danger after being brutally tortured on a daily basis.

Rights groups and his family say he is showing signs of frequent abuse.

The Israel Prison Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier, it denied claims that Abu Safia and other doctors were tortured in prison.

Israel’s Supreme Court has already refused to comment on appeals for his release.

Abu Safia was the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza when Israeli authorities arrested him along with medical staff and patients in December 2024. He has been held without charge since then.

The pediatrician was a prominent figure in Gaza’s devastated medical sector and continued to work even after one of his sons died in an Israeli airstrike. Like many health professionals before him, he was imprisoned while caring for his patients.