
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has now been detained for 266 days without due process. During this time he has been subjected to starvation, systematic beatings and torture; according to his lawyer he now suffers from chronic undernutrition, risk of blindness, cardiac arrhythmias and untreated infections. His detention is continuously extended under the Unlawful Combatants Law, originally created for prisoners of war but now applied to civilians and healthcare workers to enable indefinite detention without charge. Even Israel’s Supreme Court has acknowledged that Palestinian detainees are denied the minimum subsistence diet, thereby officially confirming the starvation policy in prisons. 📌 On the night of 16 September, Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital in Gaza City was struck three times. Upper-floor impacts destroyed major wards. Around 80 patients were inside; deaths and injuries were reported during evacuations. After the attack, the hospital’s intensive care and pediatric services were forced out of service. 📌 UN OCHA’s 10 September update not only confirmed famine in Gaza City but also documented the collapse of the health system. Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals were operating at nearly three times their capacity, trauma cases were rapidly increasing, and shortages of medicines and fuel left intensive care units largely non-functional. The same report warned that with aid flows to the north blocked, health services could collapse entirely within days. 📌 Deaths around Shifa and Al-Ahli occurred especially when ambulances were unable to reach the hospitals under bombardment. Wounded patients were left waiting on stretchers at hospital entrances; some died due to the lack of timely intervention. Healthcare workers in these areas continue to work under constant threat of being targeted. The detention of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the attacks on children’s hospitals, the arrests of healthcare staff, and the deliberate crippling of medical services demonstrate the planned and systematic destruction of Gaza’s health system. Coupled with starvation policies and the denial of treatment to civilians, this represents not only an assault on healthcare but a comprehensive attempt to annihilate an entire population. This is genocide. It must be stopped immediately; independent medical access must be restored, and international mechanisms to protect the right to life must be activated without delay. #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya #GazaGenocide








