AhlulBayt News Agency: The commander of the southern region of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) issued an order to classify the detained Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya (52 years old), director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip, as an unlawful combatant instead of subjecting him to regular trial.
The Al-Mezan Center stated in a press release on Friday that the IOF decision was issued on February 12, 2025, and the order was communicated to the Ashkelon Court and to the lawyer from the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights on the day of the scheduled detention extension hearing on February 13, 2025.
This order follows a visit by the Center’s lawyer on February 11, 2025, to Dr. Abu Safiya in Ofer Prison, which revealed that he had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
The law regarding unlawful combatants violates the right to fair trial guarantees, as it deprives the detainee of the right to be informed of the charges against him and the right to contest the evidence, thereby undermining his ability to defend himself.
According to this law, the detained person must wait for (45) days for the central court in Beersheba to confirm the detention order, which can be extended for (6) months.
The IOF arrested Abu Safiya on December 27, 2024, while he was working at Kamal Adwan Hospital, and deprived him of the right to receive a lawyer’s visit for (47) days.
The Al-Mezan Center emphasized that classifying a detainee as an unlawful combatant is an arbitrary, dangerous, illegal, and retaliatory measure, which simultaneously demonstrates the failure of the Israeli public prosecution to substantiate its claims and the accusations against the detainee.
It affirmed that such methods against civilians, especially doctors, involving torture—sometimes resulting in death—and ill-treatment, occur despite the absence of any evidence to accuse Abu Safiya of any violation. “Yet, they chose to deprive him of his most basic rights to a fair trial by turning him into a hostage.”
The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights expressed its strong condemnation of the arbitrary measures faced by Dr. Abu Safiya and other detainees held as hostages under the unlawful combatant law.
It called on the international community and the relevant United Nations mechanisms to take measures to ensure the release of Dr. Abu Safiya and other doctors and medical personnel, and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law and international human rights law in dealing with detainees, including protecting their right to a fair trial, preventing torture, and providing conditions that respect the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
The center stressed that what Palestinian detainees are subjected to, especially after October 7, 2023, constitutes serious and organized crimes and violations that deprive detainees of their most basic human rights.
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