Beneath the partial relief of a ceasefire prisoner exchange, a deeper reckoning unfolds in Gaza: fifty-five medical workers walked free, yet more than a hundred remain imprisoned, among them Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya — a pediatrician who held his hospital open through siege, personal loss, and injury, and who now sits in an Israeli prison without charge or trial after nearly ten months. His continued detention, unaccompanied by interrogation or judicial review, raises enduring questions about the boundaries of wartime authority and the protection owed to those who tend the wounded. The liberation
Gaza's medical hero remains imprisoned as ceasefire frees dozens of health workers
Dr. Abu Safiya's son Ibrahim was killed by a drone strike at the hospital entrance in October 2024; his mother died shortly after his detention; at least four medical workers died in Israeli prisons; widespread reports of beatings and abuse of detainees.
I refused to leave the hospital and sacrifice my patients
Mark
Why does Abu Safiya's detention matter more than the others? Fifty-five were released—why focus on the one still held?
Mimi
Because he became the symbol. The videos he posted from inside the hospital during the siege—that was him refusing to disappear. He made the struggle visible when everything else was being buried in rubble.
Luke
But we should be careful here. The source says he's being investigated on suspicion of cooperating with Hamas. That's Israel's claim. The source also says staff and aid groups deny it. Those are two different things, and we can't collapse them into one truth.
Mimi
Right. But he hasn't been charged. He hasn't been brought before a judge. He's been held for ten months without any of that.
Mark
What does his continued detention tell us about the ceasefire itself?
Mimi
That it's incomplete. Over one hundred medical workers are still inside. The ceasefire freed some, but it didn't resolve the underlying question of who gets to decide who's a prisoner and who's a combatant.
Luke
And we don't know if he'll be released later. The family said there are "no confirmed details about the date of his release." That's important—it's not that he won't be released. It's that nobody knows.
Mark
His son was killed by a drone strike. His mother died after his arrest. How do you measure that kind of loss?
Mimi
You don't. You just name it. You say it happened. You say his mother died while he was in prison, and his son died at the hospital entrance, and he was wounded but kept working anyway.
Luke
The source says he lost about twenty-five kilograms in prison. That's a concrete detail. That's what the visiting doctors found. Not speculation—observation.
Mark
What happens next for him?
Mimi
That's the question nobody can answer yet. The ceasefire is still new. Negotiations are ongoing. He might be released. He might not be.
Luke
And that uncertainty is itself part of the story.
Le Pouls
- A prisoner exchange released 55 medical workers on Monday, but over 115 remain in Israeli custody — including Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, Gaza's most prominent hospital director, who has been held without charge for nearly ten months.
- Rights groups and released detainees describe systematic abuse inside Israeli prisons: beatings during cell searches, inadequate food, insufficient medical care, and at least four medical workers who did not survive detention.
- Abu Safiya's absence from the release list defies mounting international pressure — his family learned through freed detainees only that he appears to be in good health, with no confirmed date for his freedom.
- His story carries an almost unbearable personal weight: his son was killed by a drone at the hospital entrance, shrapnel wounded him in his own office, and his elderly mother died days after his arrest, having not stopped crying since he was taken.
- Ceasefire negotiations continue, and whether Abu Safiya will be released in a subsequent phase remains the open, unresolved question hanging over Gaza's battered medical community.
Beneath the partial relief of a ceasefire prisoner exchange, a deeper reckoning unfolds in Gaza: fifty-five medical workers walked free, yet more than a hundred remain imprisoned, among them Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya — a pediatrician who held his hospital open through siege, personal loss, and injury, and who now sits in an Israeli prison without charge or trial after nearly ten months. His continued detention, unaccompanied by interrogation or judicial review, raises enduring questions about the boundaries of wartime authority and the protection owed to those who tend the wounded. The liberation of some, while others remain, reminds us that ceasefires mark pauses in suffering, not its end.
The ceasefire that took hold in Gaza on Friday brought partial relief: fifty-five medical workers, including thirty-one doctors and nurses, were freed Monday as part of a prisoner exchange involving hundreds of Palestinian detainees and twenty Hamas-held hostages. But the liberation was incomplete. More than one hundred medical personnel remain in Israeli custody, and the most prominent among them — Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital — was not on the release list.
Abu Safiya has been imprisoned without charge for nearly ten months. The Israeli military says he is under investigation for alleged cooperation with Hamas, a claim flatly rejected by colleagues and international aid organizations who worked beside him. Physicians for Human Rights–Israel visited him in September and found he had not been brought before a judge, had not been interrogated, and had lost roughly twenty-five kilograms since his arrest. His family learned through freed detainees only that he appears to be in good health.
The conditions facing detained medical workers are severe. Health Workers Watch confirmed at least 115 remain imprisoned and documented the deaths of four health workers in custody. Islam Mohammed, a journalist detained alongside Abu Safiya during the December raid on Kamal Adwan, described the treatment as 'inhuman from the time of detention, until release,' saying the word 'beating' fails to capture what occurred.
Abu Safiya's path to detention was one of deliberate endurance. A pediatrician who took over as hospital director in late 2023 after his predecessor was seized, he refused Israeli military orders to shut down Kamal Adwan during an eighty-five-day siege, instead posting videos documenting the hospital's struggle as supplies ran out and strikes damaged wards. The personal toll was devastating: in October 2024, a drone strike killed his son Ibrahim at the hospital entrance. Wounded himself by shrapnel the following month, he continued moving among patients. Days after his arrest on December 27, his seventy-four-year-old mother died.
When Israeli troops surrounded the hospital that December morning, Abu Safiya went out to speak with officers, then returned to gather staff, patients, and families in the courtyard. Some were evacuated; he was taken prisoner. Troops destroyed the radiology department, operating rooms, and ventilators, according to MedGlobal's president.
The release of Ahmed Muhanna, director of Al-Awda Hospital, offered a glimpse of what homecoming might look like — staff carried him on their shoulders, his face visibly gaunt after twenty-two months in detention. For Abu Safiya, no such moment has arrived. Whether he will be freed in a subsequent phase of negotiations remains unknown.
The ceasefire that took effect in Gaza on Friday brought relief to dozens of medical workers held by Israel. Fifty-five of them—including thirty-one doctors and nurses—walked free on Monday as part of a prisoner exchange that saw hundreds of Palestinian detainees released in return for twenty hostages held by Hamas. But the liberation was incomplete. More than one hundred medical personnel remain in Israeli custody, and among them is the man who became Gaza's most visible symbol of medical defiance: Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north.
Abu Safiya has been imprisoned without charge for nearly ten months. He was not on Monday's release list, despite widespread international calls for his freedom. The Israeli military says he is under investigation on suspicion of cooperating with Hamas—an accusation that staff members and international aid organizations who worked alongside him flatly reject. His family posted on social media that freed detainees described him as "in good health and strong spirits," but offered no confirmed date for his release. It remains unclear whether he will be freed as negotiations continue.
The scale of medical detention tells its own story. Health Workers Watch, which documents such cases, confirmed that at least one hundred fifteen medical workers remain in Israeli prisons. The group also documented the remains of four health workers who died while in custody. Rights groups and witnesses have reported systematic abuse—beatings during cell searches, insufficient food, inadequate medical care. Islam Mohammed, a journalist detained alongside Abu Safiya during the December raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital, was released Monday. He described the treatment as "inhuman from the time of detention, until release," adding that calling it "a beating does not describe it." Israeli officials say they follow legal standards for prisoner treatment and investigate any violations.
Abu Safiya's story is one of calculated resistance. A pediatrician, he took over as hospital director in late 2023 after his predecessor was seized in an earlier raid. When Israeli forces surrounded Kamal Adwan during an eighty-five-day siege of the Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun districts, Abu Safiya refused repeated military orders to shut down the facility. Instead, he posted videos documenting the hospital's struggle—staff treating waves of wounded Palestinians, supplies running out, Israeli strikes damaging wards and killing patients and staff. He became the rallying figure for Gaza's medical workers, the face of those who kept working even as the health system collapsed around them.
The personal cost was staggering. In October 2024, a drone strike killed his son Ibrahim at the hospital entrance. In a video afterward, Abu Safiya broke down in tears: "I refused to leave the hospital and sacrifice my patients, so the army punished me by killing my son." The following month, shrapnel from another drone blast wounded him as he sat in his office. Dr. Rana Soboh, a nutrition adviser for the US medical aid group MedGlobal, recalled that even injured, "he was circulating among the patients … He was sleeping, eating, drinking among the patients." Days after his detention on December 27, his seventy-four-year-old mother died. His son Elias said she "hadn't stopped crying since they detained him."
On that December morning, Israeli troops surrounded the hospital compound. Abu Safiya went out to speak with the officers, then returned and asked staff to gather everyone—patients, staff, family members—in the courtyard. Some were evacuated to other hospitals; others, including Abu Safiya, were taken prisoner. Troops destroyed the radiology department, operating rooms, and ventilators, according to Zaher Sahloul, president of MedGlobal. The Israeli military said it launched the raid after warning staff multiple times about Hamas fighters it claimed were operating from the facility. Palestinian health officials deny this claim.
Abu Safiya is now held at Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank. When Physicians for Human Rights–Israel visited him in September, they found he had not been brought before a judge or interrogated and had no information about why he was detained. He reported losing about twenty-five kilograms since his imprisonment. He told the group that guards regularly beat prisoners during cell searches and that detainees received insufficient food and medical care. His case echoes that of Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, whom Israel declared a Hamas officer in November 2023 only to release him seven months later without charges.
When Ahmed Muhanna, director of Al-Awda Hospital, was released Monday after twenty-two months in detention, staff carried him on their shoulders. His face was visibly gaunt. "Al-Awda Hospital will be restored, its staff will rebuild it with their own hands," he told well-wishers. "I am proud of what we have done and will do." The hospital, damaged during multiple offensives in the leveled Jabaliya refugee camp, has been shuttered since May. For Abu Safiya, no such homecoming has come. Whether he will be among those still to be freed remains unknown.
Citations marquantes
I refused to leave the hospital and sacrifice my patients, so the army punished me by killing my son.— Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, in a video after his son's death
The treatment was inhuman from the time of detention, until release. To call it a beating does not describe it.— Islam Mohammed, journalist detained with Abu Safiya, released Monday
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