An Israeli rights organisation filed a petition at Israel's Supreme Court on Thursday requesting the immediate release of 14 Palestinian doctors from Gaza who have been held in custody for more than a year without being charged, according to the group.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said the detained medical personnel have been subjected to inadequate medical treatment, insufficient food and physical abuse while in detention. The group further noted that the doctors are being held under Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law, which permits indefinite detention without charge.
"The Israeli army already investigated them and despite the lack of any evidence incriminating them ... (prosecutors) decided to continue their detention," said lawyer Nasser Odeh, who represents Hussam Abu Safiya, the detained director of Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Israel's Prison Service rejected the allegations of mistreatment when contacted. It was not immediately clear if or when the Supreme Court will schedule a hearing on the petition.
PHRI said the 14 doctors are part of a larger group of nearly 400 healthcare workers detained during Israel's two-year military campaign in Gaza, which began after the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. According to the organisation, many of the detained were released in prisoner exchanges after temporary ceasefires, including a U.S.-backed truce in October intended to pause the fighting.
Roughly 60 healthcare workers remain in custody, PHRI said, with the 14 doctors represented by the organisation among them. None of these 14 has been formally charged or told why they are being held, the rights group added.
Hussam Abu Safiya is the most prominent of the doctors still detained. His arrest during an Israeli operation at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza in late 2024 prompted international criticism, PHRI said.
Abu Safiya's brother, Muafaq Abu Safiya, said their lawyer informed the family that Hussam had lost 40 kg (88 lb) while in detention and sustained four fractured ribs along with other health problems. "All the crimes inflicted on him by the occupation (Israel) were just because he refused to leave the hospital and patients," Muafaq said.
Following the hospital raid, the Israeli military said Abu Safiya was being questioned as a suspect and accused him of membership in the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but it did not provide verifiable evidence for the allegation. Gaza's health ministry and Hamas have denied the accusation.
When asked about claims that Abu Safiya had been subjected to torture or food deprivation, the military requested the detainee's identification number and said it could not examine the case without that information. The Prison Service declined to comment on Abu Safiya's case specifically.
PHRI and other rights groups say Israel's raids and bombings of hospitals during its military campaign have left Gaza's healthcare system largely destroyed and that such actions may violate international law. "We started to understand that the Israeli army, one of its main policies is to destroy the health system in Gaza," said Naji Abbas, PHRI's director of the prisoners and detainees department.
Israel has argued that Hamas used hospitals as locations to plan attacks and to operate from tunnels beneath medical facilities - claims that Palestinian groups deny - and it has accused some Gaza health workers of links to the militant group.
According to the Medical Aid for Palestinians association, Israeli attacks killed more than 1,700 healthcare workers between October 2023 and October 2025. PHRI noted that one prominent surgeon died in 2024 while in Israeli detention; the Israeli Prison Service has said it was investigating that death.
The petition before the Supreme Court asks the judiciary to order the immediate release of the 14 doctors and raises questions about the use of the Unlawful Combatants Law for prolonged detention without charge. The timing for any court action was not specified by the rights group.