Amnesty International demands immediate release of Palestinian doctor after 500 days of Israeli arbitrary detention

A senior Amnesty International official has condemned the Israeli regime for the continued imprisonment of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya as “500 days of arbitrary detention” and “500 days of injustice.”

Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, took to X on Monday to spotlight the plight of Palestinian healthcare workers who continue to be punished simply for saving lives under relentless Israeli bombardment.

“Healthcare workers punished for saving lives,” Rosas wrote, calling on the Tel Aviv regime to “immediately and unconditionally release” Dr. Abu Safiya and all other Palestinian medical professionals held in arbitrary detention.

Dr. Abu Safiya has been languishing in Israeli dungeons since December 27, 2024, when occupation forces abducted him during their savage assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last functioning medical facility in northern Gaza at the time.

Even after an Israeli airstrike murdered his own son, the dedicated physician refused to abandon his patients, embodying the unbreakable spirit of Gaza’s medical workers in the face of Zionist barbarity.

Credible reports received by UN Special Rapporteurs Tlaleng Mofokeng and Ben Saul in March confirmed that Dr. Abu Safiya has been subjected to torture and the systematic denial of medical care, with his life now in grave danger.

Yet the United States and its Western allies have remained criminally silent, refusing to lift a finger to halt Tel Aviv’s campaign of terror.

A UK-based human rights organization has rightly described the abduction as part of Israel’s deliberate policy of systematically targeting Palestinian health workers and obliterating Gaza’s healthcare system, actions calculated to create conditions for the physical destruction of the Palestinian people.

Since the Zionist regime launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, at least 737 Palestinian medical workers have been arbitrarily detained. In the same period, more than 1,722 have been martyred, an average of over two per day.

The World Health Organization has documented over 930 attacks on Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure, leaving all 36 hospitals either damaged or completely destroyed, with only half partially functional.

These atrocities form a clear and integral component of Israel’s genocidal campaign aimed at annihilating Gaza’s healthcare system and, with it, the very capacity of the Palestinian people to survive.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk