730 Medical Personnel in Occupation Prisons: Horrific Testimonies of Torture Against Abu Safiya and Al-Homs

The suffering of the families of Palestinian medical personnel detained in Israeli occupation prisons continues, with doctors Hussam Abu Safiya and Marwan Al-Homs held behind bars in extremely harsh humanitarian conditions. The two families live in a state of constant anxiety and longing, amidst attempts to find solace by hanging their pictures in displacement tents to keep their memory alive despite the forced separation.\n\nThe occupation forces arrested Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, in late December 2024, after a tight siege on the hospital and repeated threats to medical staff. Since then, his family has missed his leadership and spiritual role at home, with his son Elias confirming that his father's absence ended the state of tranquility and stability the family had enjoyed.\n\nDr. Abu Safiya's relatives received news of a court hearing for him after a 60-day information blackout, but his true health status remains shrouded in mystery. The occupation authorities prevent lawyers from visiting him under the pretext of security conditions, which exacerbates fears about his fate in light of reports of systematic abuse against him.\n\nAbu Safiya's colleagues recount the details of the last moments before his arrest, where he insisted on staying inside Kamal Adwan Hospital to reassure patients and the wounded despite direct threats. He was later transferred to a field interrogation point at Al-Fakhoura School, where he was forced to remove his white coat and stethoscope before being taken to an unknown destination.\n\nTestimonies from released prisoners from the notorious 'Sde Teiman' detention center revealed that Abu Safiya was subjected to severe beatings and physical and psychological abuse from the first days of his detention. Released prisoners conveyed a message from the doctor, urging human rights organizations to take urgent action and not remain silent about the field executions and abuse doctors are subjected to inside the camps.\n\nHuman rights sources reported that Dr. Abu Safiya's health condition is extremely worrying, as he has been held in solitary confinement for long weeks without formal charges. The doctor has lost a significant amount of weight due to the starvation policy and is suffering from a deterioration in his psychological state due to the inhumane detention conditions imposed by the occupation.\n\nIn a related context, the family of Dr. Marwan Al-Homs, director of field hospitals, is experiencing the shock of his abduction by an Israeli special force in July 2025. Al-Homs expected to be martyred at any moment while performing his duty, but his family never imagined that he would be abducted while wounded from in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters.\n\nDr. Al-Homs's wife, Umm Obada, lives with her seven children in a modest tent in a displacement camp southwest of Khan Younis, where a picture of her husband in his white coat hangs from the tent's ceiling. The family faces harsh living conditions after losing their sole provider and appeals to the world to intervene to save his life from the clutches of torture inside prisons.\n\nInformation from inside the prisons indicates that Dr. Al-Homs suffered broken ribs as a result of the brutal interrogation and physical torture he endured while wounded. The occupation also exerted psychological pressure on him by briefly arresting his nurse daughter Tasneem and blackmailing him with her, in addition to threatening to bomb his family in displacement tents.\n\nMohammed, Dr. Al-Homs's son, took on the responsibility of supporting his mother and siblings at an early age, trying to fill the large void left by his father amidst the war of extermination and famine. Mohammed used his social media platforms to raise awareness about his father's case and the suffering of medical personnel who are systematically targeted to destroy the healthcare system.\n\nPrisoner institutions confirm that the number of Palestinian detainees has exceeded 9,600 prisoners, including more than 730 medical personnel arrested since the beginning of the aggression. The occupation makes no distinction in its brutal treatment between civilians and doctors, which previously led to the martyrdom of Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh under torture, raising serious concerns for the lives of the rest.\n\nThe director of Al-Dameer Foundation, lawyer Alaa Al-Skafi, explained that what doctors like Al-Homs and Abu Safiya are subjected to represents a blatant violation of international humanitarian law. He pointed out that the occupation uses solitary confinement and deprivation of treatment as tools to break the will of medical personnel who stood firm in the field to serve their people.\n\nFor its part, the International Committee of the Red Cross expressed its deep concern over being denied access to detainees in Israeli prisons since October 2023. The committee's spokesperson, Amani Al-Naouq, confirmed that they receive daily distress calls from families who do not know the fate of their loved ones, emphasizing the need to grant the committee immediate access to detainees.\n\nThe issue of medical personnel prisoners remains a bleeding wound in the side of the Palestinian cause, as these doctors face slow death in the occupation's cells. Families and human rights organizations demand real international pressure to ensure their release and protection as protected persons under international conventions that criminalize targeting humanitarian teams.\n\n"We have done nothing wrong; we are performing our humanitarian duty towards the wounded and sick amidst the siege.