Palestinian Prisoner’s Society

New Intel Confirms Intensifying Israeli Attempts to Murder Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya Behind Bars

July 5, 2026

Ramallah, occupied Palestine – The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society stated that the alarming information conveyed by Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya's lawyer, in cooperation with Physicians for Human Rights, clearly demonstrates that the Israeli occupation authorities are intensifying their direct targeting of Dr. Abu Safiya by subjecting him to a systematic regime of torture and harsh detention conditions aimed at exhausting him physically and psychologically. This is a clear continuation of attempts to murder him while in prison.

The PPS stressed that the international human rights system, United Nations bodies, and the International Committee of the Red Cross must move beyond issuing condemnations and expressions of concern and instead take urgent and effective action to ensure the immediate protection of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. It also called for his release, along with all detained medical personnel held in Israeli occupation prisons, given the ongoing abuses that directly threaten their lives.

Dr. Abu Safiya's transfer to the "Rakefet" section—associated with numerous testimonies of severe torture, abuse, humiliation, starvation, solitary confinement, and denial of medical treatment—marks an extremely dangerous escalation in the campaign against him. This demonstrates that the Israeli occupation authorities continue to use prisons as instruments of slow death through detention conditions characterized by torture and deliberate medical neglect, placing detainees' lives at constant risk.

The PPS emphasized that the repeated statements of condemnation and warnings issued over recent months have had no practical effect in the face of unprecedented crimes committed against Palestinian prisoners. After nearly three years of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, prisoners are facing a systematic policy of destruction inside prisons through institutionalized physical and psychological abuse carried out across a network of prisons, military camps, and interrogation centers. These practices are war crimes and crimes against humanity that continue without meaningful international accountability.

The continued arbitrary detention of Dr. Abu Safiya, despite intensive legal efforts to secure his release and without any formal charges being brought against him, under what Israeli occupation authorities call the "Unlawful Combatant Law," demonstrates extensive coordination among various Israeli institutions to maintain his detention. This law provides a false legal justification for his continued detention and increasing risk to his life, reinforcing serious concerns that efforts to eliminate him while in custody are continuing.

The PPS also said that the continued detention of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya—one of the leading physicians who devoted his work to treating the wounded during the genocide in Gaza—reflects the occupation’s ongoing targeting of medical personnel, not only through killings and direct attacks in the field, but also through imprisonment, torture, starvation, and denial of medical care in detention, as punishment for carrying out their humanitarian and medical duties.

In light of these developments, the PPS said it holds the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the life and fate of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the dozens of detained medical personnel, and all Palestinian political prisoners. It also held states and parties that continue to provide the occupation with political and military support responsible for enabling these actions and the resulting serious violations of international law and international humanitarian law.

As of the beginning of July 2026, approximately 9,400 Palestinians were being held in Israeli occupation prisons, including 1,320 detainees classified by Israel as "unlawful combatants” without trial or charges. This includes Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who is being held arbitrarily without formal charges or fair trial proceedings. This is part of a broader policy of detention outside normal legal safeguards, alongside thousands of administrative detainees held without charge or trial.

The PPS also stated that occupation authorities continue to withhold information about the whereabouts and conditions of hundreds of detainees from the Gaza Strip, refusing to disclose their places of detention or their health status. This heightens concerns for their lives in light of numerous testimonies of torture, starvation, and medical neglect.

Since the beginning of the genocide, more than 100 Palestinian prisoners have been killed in Israeli occupation prisons and detention camps, with the identities of 90 of them having been made public. These figures reflect an unprecedented level of abuses committed against Palestinian prisoners amid continued impunity.