Gaza, 15 February 2025 —  On 12 February 2025, the Commander of the Southern Command of the Israeli army issued an order to detain Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, 52, a Palestinian pediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law (5762-2002). The order was delivered to the Ashkelon Court and Al Mezan's lawyer on 13 February 2025. On the same day, a hearing was scheduled to discuss the extension of his detention—which had previously been authorized under the Criminal Procedure Law—but was canceled due to his transfer under the Unlawful Combatants Law.

The Unlawful Combatants Law is an apartheid law specifically designed to detain Palestinian residents of Gaza without charges, based on the suspicion of them being ‘unlawful combatants’—a status that does not exist under international humanitarian law. Detainees held under this law are neither granted the status of prisoners of war under the Third Geneva Convention nor afforded the protections of civilian detainees under the Fourth Geneva Convention. This law enables prolonged detention without charges, stripping detainees of any meaningful judicial review or due process rights.

As per its latest amendment, the Unlawful Combatants Law allows an officer within the Israeli army with the rank of Brigadier General to issue a temporary detention order. Detainees can be held for up to 45 days before an Israeli civilian court reviews and ratifies the temporary detention order. Once ratified, detention lasts for six months, with the possibility of indefinite six-month extensions.

Since the beginning of the ground invasion of Gaza, Israeli forces and authorities have extensively used this legal framework to detain thousands of Palestinian residents of Gaza without charges and to carry out a campaign of mass-enforced disappearances. This is because the detention regime established by the amended Unlawful Combatants Law allows Palestinians to be imprisoned indefinitely without meaningful legal protections or judicial oversight and denies them access to lawyers and family for a prolonged time. By systematically and widely stripping Palestinian detainees of their fundamental rights and keeping their whereabouts undisclosed, Israeli forces and authorities have committed the crime against humanity of enforced disappearance.

This decision of the Israeli military commander came after Al Mezan’s lawyer visited Dr. Abu Safiya in Ofer Prison on 11 February 2025, following 47 days of incommunicado detention. During the visit, Dr. Abu Safiya revealed that he had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including being held in solitary confinement for more than 20 days.

Al Mezan unequivocally condemns the current arbitrary detention of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and hundreds of other Palestinian detainees under the Unlawful Combatants Law by Israeli authorities and considers it a gross violation of international human rights and humanitarian law. We once again reiterate our urgent call on the international community—particularly Israel’s enabling allies—to take immediate action to demand the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Abu Safiya, as well as of all Palestinians who have been unlawfully arrested and arbitrarily detained by Israeli authorities, including hudrends of healthcare workers.