67 doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other healthcare workers, who were seized during Israeli occupation raids on health facilities, were released during the latest prisoner swap on 13 October.

Healthcare workers detained by Israeli occupation

Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW) has documented 95 Palestinian medical staff still being held in the occupation’s prisons. 80 of these detainees are from Gaza, while 15 are from the West Bank. According to the NGO, it has documented a total of 431 cases of detained Palestinian healthcare workers (HCW) since the start of the genocide. Five HCWs, all Gazans, have been killed by ‘Israel’ while imprisoned. Their bodies are still being withheld, and five are missing, their fate completely unknown.

Abu Safiya’s arbitrary detention extended yet again

Among those still arbitrarily detained is Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital. He was detained while on duty, and is being held without charge or trial. Since his detention, reports have emerged of torture and abuse. Abu Safiya holds foreign citizenship so could have left Gaza but instead decided to stay with his patients. Despite his name having previously appeared among those discussed for release, on 16 October, Abu Safiya’s administrative detention was instead extended for another six months.

Dr Marwan Al Hams, the director of field hospitals in Gaza, who was kidnapped by an Israel occupation undercover force in July was also not released. Nor was his daughter Tasneem who was abducted at the beginning of October.

‘Medical needs in Gaza are at their highest’

Dr Mohammed Obeid was also not released as part of the ceasefire deal. He is an orthopaedic surgeon who was arrested in October 2024 by the IOF during a military raid at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, and was detained along with 57 others from the hospital. Dr. Obeid has not made contact with his family for almost a year. He had been working with Medecins Sans Frontieres since 2018.

MSF has said it is “deeply disappointed” Obeid has not been released, with the organisation’s general director, Dr Tejshri Shah, saying in a statement:

We are extremely concerned for his safety and wellbeing. We stand in full solidarity with him and his family, and demand that his rights, dignity, and freedom be restored without further delay. At a time when medical needs in Gaza are at their highest, the role of medical and paramedical staff is crucial.

Majority of medical personnel arrested whilst on duty

According to HWW, 85% of Gazan healthcare workers currently in detention were abducted by the Israeli occupation’s military from their hospitals or ambulances while they were working. All because they refused to abandon their patients.

Testimonies from medical staff who have been released from Israeli occupation prisons speak of rampant abuse and torture. According to Dr Ahmed Muhanna, the director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, Northern Gaza:

doctors have been singled out as targets for detention.

Muhanna was abducted by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) during a raid at his hospital in December 2023, while he was working. During his 665 days in illegal detention he lost almost a third of his body weight.

Muhanna, who was released as part of the ‘ceasefire’ deal, described in a video testimony how several Palestinian detainees died as “Israeli jailers looked on”, and detained healthcare workers were prevented from helping other injured detainees. But he said:

Al-Awda Hospital will be restored, its staff will rebuild it with their own hands. … I am proud of what we have done and will do.

Asaliya is released but hospitalised due to effects of torture

Dr Mohammed Asaliya was released from detention during the latest prisoner swap. He had been abducted by the IOF from Al-Shifa Hospital, but is now back in the hospital, as a patient. Dr. Asaliya suffers from convulsions, dizziness, and severe chest pain due to the torture he endured at the hands of the Israeli regime while behind bars.

Scores of medical workers are still being physically and mentally abused. They are enduring degrading treatment and starvation in Israeli occupation torture camps and prisons. Most of these are held under ‘administrative detention’, meaning without charge or trial. Many, including Dr Abu Safiyah, are labelled ‘unlawful combatants’. Under the Detention of Unlawful Combatants Law, anyone from Gaza can be detained, for indefinitely-renewable periods, if suspected of engaging in hostilities against ‘Israel’ or of posing a threat to state security. No evidence is necessary.

Deliberately destroying Gaza’s healthcare system

UN experts have accused the Israeli regime of deliberately attacking and starving healthcare workers, paramedics, and hospitals to wipe out medical care in the Gaza Strip. This is a blatant violation of international and humanitarian law, which guarantees the protection of medical personnel and infrastructure during war.

The experts have said that:

In addition to bearing witness to an ongoing genocide we are also bearing witness to a ‘medicide,’ a sinister component of the intentional creation of conditions calculated to destroy Palestinians in Gaza which constitutes an act of genocide.

Gaza’s healthcare system has been intentionally annihilated. Most hospitals have been bombed or destroyed, and none are fully functional. This ensures they are unable to provide life-saving functions, while the Israeli occupation has continued its bombardment of civilians.

Legal and moral duty to act to stop genocide

Between 7 October 2023 – 5 September 2025, more than 1,722 healthcare workers were killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. This is an average of more than two every day. Those who have managed to survive are struggling to cope with the number of patients and lack of supplies. They themselves facing displaced, exhausted, traumatised, and hungry.

All countries have a legal and moral duty to protect them. They also have a duty to prevent and stop genocide, including by suspending arms transfers to the illegal Israeli occupation. Perpetrators of violations of international law must be held to account.

Feature image via Al Jazeera English/Youtube. 

By Charlie Jaay

This post was originally published on Canary.