NIF Australia Calls for immediate release of Gazan physician Dr Hussam Abu Safiya

7 July 2026

New Israel Fund (NIF) Australia supports our grantee, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, in calling for the immediate release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and the other 13 Palestinian physicians from Gaza being held in Israeli custody for more than 18 months without charge or trial.

Dr Abu Safiya, a prominent Gazan pediatrician and head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested on 27 December 2024 on suspicions of being a Hamas operative. Israel has never formally charged him and continues to detain him at the “Rakefet” underground security facility.

While visiting Dr Abu Safiya last Thursday, his lawyer observed fresh bruising across his body and described his physical and psychological state as “life-threatening”. Dr Abu Safiya reports he has experienced abuse on a daily basis, to the point of losing consciousness several times. After attending an appeal hearing at the Supreme Court, he reported officers physically assaulted him with a hammer and batons.

This case is not an isolated incident but one example of systematic abuse against Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, including documented torture, denial of fair trials, and the deprivation of basic human rights.

These actions and the ongoing military occupation of more than 60 percent of Gaza form part of the Netanyahu government’s efforts to maintain a destabilised Gaza, one which prevents them from abiding by obligations and commitments they made in President Trump’s ‘Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict’. This plan would see the establishment of a Palestinian technocratic government and the eventual recognition of an independent Palestinian state, two things this Israeli government has refused to abide by/agree to. Israel will not have security or peace with its neighbours if it continues to ignore agreed international protocols and frameworks.

Kate Rosenberg, Executive Director of NIF Australia said, “we cannot look away when the Israeli government is allowing human rights abuses like this to take place. We must support the Israeli and Palestinian activists, like Physicians for Human Rights Israel, who are pushing for the release of Dr Abu Safiya and others”. 

NIF Australia calls on Foreign Minister Penny Wong and the Australian government to urgently raise the case of Dr Abu Safiya and the 13 other Palestinian physicians being held without charge or trial, and call for their immediate release.