Detained Gaza doctor almost unrecognisable after injuries in Israeli jail, lawyer says

Hussam Abu Safiya (right) speaks to representatives from Unicef and journalists at Kamal Adwan hospital in September 2024. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Hussam Abu Safiya (right) speaks to representatives from Unicef and journalists at Kamal Adwan hospital in September 2024. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images Detained Gaza doctor almost unrecognisable after injuries in Israeli jail, lawyer says Hussam Abu Safiya faces ‘tangible danger to his life’ following 18 months in prison without charge or trial Middle East crisis live – latest updates One of Gaza’s most prominent doctors is almost unrecognisable because of severe injuries inflicted in Israeli detention, his lawyer said, and faces “tangible danger to his life” after being held for 18 months without charge or trial. Hussam Abu Safiya met his lawyer on 2 July, after a transfer to Israel’s notorious underground Rakefet prison in late June. He had difficulty breathing and speaking continuously, was so weak he struggled to sit upright, and repeatedly seemed on the verge of losing consciousness, said his lawyer, Nasser Odeh. Abu Safiya, who was the director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza until he was seized by Israeli forces , said he feared for his life. “They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving. This is the end,” Odeh quoted him as saying, in a joint statement with Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), who along with other organisations are calling for his release. His detention is part of a broader pattern of Israeli attacks on healthcare across occupied Palestine, said Milena Ansari, PHRI’s director for the area. View image in fullscreen Safiya was the director of Kamal Adwan hospital, pictured here after Israeli strikes in December 2023. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images On Sunday a four-month-old Palestinian baby, Ahmad Maarouf Zaid, died after Israeli forces blocked his family from crossing a checkpoint to reach a waiting ambulance, his family told the Guardian. They drove the severely ill baby on unpaved and mountainous back roads to Ramallah themselves, which delayed treatment by over an hour. “The reports of a newborn dying after delays at a West Bank checkpoint, the arrest of a physician providing medical care, and the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza should not be understood as isolated incidents,” Ansari said. “They reflect a broader pattern in which the conditions necessary to realise Palestinians’ right to health are being systematically undermined.” Abu Safiya had become the face of health workers struggling to treat patients throughout the war in Gaza before his detention. He is being held indefinitely, along with thousands of other Palestinian civilians , in prisons that Israeli rights groups say have become torture camps . An image provided by the Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) shows Safiya on a video call from prison in June. Photograph: Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI)/AP In late May he w