Israel will not release Dr Hussam Abu Safiya as part of Gaza deal

Israel has said it will not release two detained Palestinian doctors, including paediatrician Hussam Abu Safiya, as part of the ceasefire deal, a Hamas official told CNN.

Safiya was beaten and kidnapped by Israeli forces in Gaza during a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in December last year after he refused to abandon patients under siege.

Footage in the aftermath of the attack showed Safiya wearing a white medical overcoat crossing a street strewn with rubble.

The Israeli military said Safiya was being held as a "suspect" and being questioned over "potential involvement in terrorist activity".

Safiya has been held since then without charge.

Despite the agreement to swap captives as part of a ceasefire deal earlier this week, a Hamas source said that Safiya would not be released.

"The occupation refused to release Dr Hussam Abu Safiya," a Hamas official told CNN on Friday.

In July, lawyer Ghaid Ghanem Qassem revealed that Safiya had lost over a third of his bodyweight in detention in Israel's notorious Ofer prison, was being brutally beaten and that his repeated requests for medical attention had been refused.

"Dr Hossam Abu Safieh is not okay. My most recent visit to him was just a few days ago, on 9 July 2025. He has lost more than 40 kg - over a third of his weight," Qassem said in a post on Facebook.

"At the time of his arrest, he weighed 100 kilograms. Today, his weight does not exceed 60," she said, adding that he was "severely beaten on 24 June 2025".

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"His cell in Ofer Prison - Cell 1, Section 24 - was specifically targeted. He was brutally beaten in the chest area."

Furthermore, she reported that Safiya suffers from "irregular heartbeat, and his eyeglasses, which were recently brought in through his lawyer, were broken".

According to the Hamas official, Marwan Al-Hams, the director Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah and an official overseeing field hospitals in Gaza, will also not be released.

Hams was abducted by an undercover Israeli force disguised in civilian clothing in July this year. 

According to eyewitness accounts collected by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), on 21 July, four armed individuals wearing civilian clothing raided Sea Castle Cafeteria, near the International Committee of the Red Cross field hospital on al-Rasheed Coastal Street in al-Mawasi, western Rafah.

They opened fire, wounding Hams, and killing freelance photojournalists Tamer Rebhi Rafiq al-Zaanin and Ibrahim Atef Atiyah Abu Asheibah.

PCHR said that the raid was timed with the filming of a documentary produced by Zaanin in collaboration with Hams.

Hams was then thrown in the back of a white vehicle and driven away. His whereabouts are currently unknown, as the Israeli authorities have failed to issue a statement confirming his detention.

According to data from the Palestinian Healthcare Workers Watch, some 28 doctors from Gaza are being held in Israeli custody. Eight of them are senior consultants in surgery, orthopaedics, intensive care, cardiology and paediatrics.

Palestinian detainees have reported widespread and severe mistreatment in Israeli custody since 7 October 2023, abuses that leading rights groups describe as systematic crimes.

Reports detail starvation, medical neglect, physical violence, humiliation, sexual assault, theft and unprecedented levels of mass solitary confinement.  

Despite being a civilian doctor, Abu Safiya has been categorised as an "unlawful combatant" under Israeli law, which means there is no formal indictment against him.

Rights groups have described this legislation as a flagrant violation of international law. It allows Israeli authorities to detain individuals without a court order or access to legal representation as well as withhold information about their whereabouts and conditions.