Israeli rights group asks top court to free 14 Gaza doctors held without charge

JERUSALEM: An Israeli human rights organisation has petitioned the country’s highest court, seeking the immediate release of 14 Palestinian doctors from Gaza who it says have been detained without charge for more than a year.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said on Thursday that the doctors were being held under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, which permits indefinite detention without charge. The organisation said none of the 14 doctors had been formally charged or informed of the reasons for their detention.

According to PHRI, the detained doctors have been denied sufficient food and proper medical treatment and have also faced physical abuse while in custody.

Lawyer Nasser Odeh, who represents detained Kamal Adwan Hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya, said the authorities had already examined the case. “The Israeli army already investigated them and despite the lack of any evidence incriminating them.. (prosecutors) decided to continue their detention,” said lawyer Nasser Odeh, who represents Hussam Abu Safiya, the detained director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Israel’s prison service rejected the allegations that the doctors had been mistreated in prison. It was not immediately clear when, or if, the court would take up the petition.

Healthcare workers still in detention

The 14 doctors are among nearly 400 healthcare workers detained by Israel during its two-year assault on Gaza. Many of those taken into custody were later released in prisoner exchanges following ceasefires, including a US-backed truce in October that was intended to stop the fighting.

PHRI said around 60 healthcare workers are still being held, including the 14 doctors named in the petition.

Among those still in detention, Abu Safiya is described as the most prominent. His arrest during an Israeli raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza in late 2024 prompted international condemnation.

His brother, Muafaq Abu Safiya, said the family had been told by their lawyer that Hussam Abu Safiya had lost 40kg, or 88 pounds, during his imprisonment and had also suffered four fractured ribs. “All the crimes inflicted on him by the occupation were just because he refused to leave the hospital and patients.”

The petition adds to growing scrutiny over the detention of medical personnel from Gaza, particularly those who have not been charged. PHRI’s filing focuses on the continued imprisonment of the 14 doctors and calls for their release through judicial intervention.