Palestinian Doctor Hossam Abu Safiya Endures Brutal Torture in Israeli Prisons

In late December, Israeli occupation forces arrested Abu Safiya after storming Kamal Adwan Hospital, removing him at gunpoint, and rendering the hospital inoperable.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Information Office, lawyer Ghaida Qasem from Nazareth was able to visit Abu Safiya last Thursday. He has been detained for over 70 days at Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah.

Prolonged Isolation and Torture

Abu Safiya reported that from the moment of his arrest, he was taken to the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility, where he was held in solitary confinement for 14 days. He was then transferred to Ofer Prison, where he spent another 25 days in isolation before being moved to Section 24 with other prisoners from Gaza.

Qasem explained that prisoners from Gaza are held separately in Sections 23 and 24, in an apparent effort to isolate them from detainees from the West Bank and other regions.

Regarding interrogations, she stated that Abu Safiya endured up to 13 consecutive days of questioning, with each session lasting between 8 to 10 hours. Throughout this period, he was subjected to relentless abuse, torture, and mistreatment.

Personal Loss and Emotional Toll

During the visit, Abu Safiya’s primary concern was the fate of his son, who was martyred in Gaza two months before his arrest. Due to the ongoing war, he was unable to bury him properly, and his body was temporarily laid to rest near Kamal Adwan Hospital. His first question was whether his son’s remains had been transferred and given a proper burial. He also inquired about his mother, who passed away 10 days after his arrest.

Prison Conditions: “An Israeli Slaughterhouse”

Describing the horrific conditions inside Israeli detention centers, Qasem quoted Abu Safiya as saying that Sde Teiman was “a slaughterhouse in every sense of the word.” Detainees there face unprecedented levels of torture, mistreatment, and starvation.

She recounted cases of detainees who have been shackled for 10 months, amputees denied medical treatment, elderly prisoners held in restraints with blindfolds, and the extreme cold as prisoners are kept in open-air cages, exposed to rain and harsh winds. They are forced to sit on the ground, forbidden from speaking to one another, praying, or reading the Quran.

Additionally, detainees are subjected to psychological torment, with Israeli intelligence falsely informing some that their entire families have been killed, regardless of whether the information is true. This isolation and misinformation severely impact their mental health.

Coerced Video Recording and Legal Status

Abu Safiya was shocked to learn that his case had gained significant local, regional, and international attention. According to Qasem, detainees are almost entirely cut off from the outside world and have no knowledge of ongoing events.

She also noted that Abu Safiya was forcibly filmed for an Israeli Channel 13 report. He was unaware of the recording, and after the interview, he was isolated and subjected to further humiliation, beatings, and coercion.

In February, Israeli media published a video showing Abu Safiya in detention, shackled hand and foot, appearing exhausted and fatigued. Shortly afterward, Israeli authorities classified him as an “unlawful combatant,” subjecting him to continued detention without rights or formal charges.

Qasem revealed that Israeli authorities initially attempted to file an ordinary security case against Abu Safiya to press charges. However, after 45 days of intense interrogations and torture, they failed to find any evidence against him. As a result, they reclassified him under the “unlawful combatant” designation, which strips detainees of legal protections and allows indefinite detention without trial.

A Message of Resilience

Despite his suffering, Abu Safiya remains in high spirits. As Qasem concluded her visit, he left her with a message: “A person is their history, and history is defined by the stands we take.”

Ongoing Genocide in Gaza

With U.S. support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, resulting in over 160,000 Palestinian casualties, including thousands of children and women. More than 14,000 people remain missing, and over 1.5 million Gazans have been left homeless as Israel continues to systematically destroy homes and infrastructure while imposing extreme shortages of food, water, and medicine.

On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

For decades, Israel has continued its illegal occupation of Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese territories, refusing to withdraw or recognize an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital within the pre-1967 borders.