A U.N. commission has called on Israeli authorities to free Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, provide him with medical care and free all other arbitrarily detained Palestinian medical personnel, Jessica Corbett reports.
U.N. headquarters in New York. (LPulecio-WMF/ Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY 4.0)
By Jessica Corbett
Common Dreams
Just over 1,000 days into Israeli forces’ genocidal violence against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, a United Nations commission has forcefully denounced Israel’s treatment of health workers from the besieged territory and specifically demanded “the immediate, unconditional, and safe release” of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.
Israel has detained Abu Safiya without charge since capturing him at Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, where he was the director, in December 2024. Renewed calls for Abu Safiya’s release have mounted in recent days following his transfer to the underground Rakefet interrogation facility at Nitzan Prison, where his lawyer, Nasser Odeh, said that his life is at risk.
“I have visited Dr. Abu Safiya several times since his detention, but the individual I encountered during this latest visit was not the same person I had previously met,” Odeh said after visiting the prison last week.
“His physical and psychological state, the severe injuries visible on his body, and his personal testimony leave no room for doubt: his life is in immediate danger.”
“This is the last time you will see me. They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving. This is the end.” — Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya
Tell Congress: Act NOW to save Dr. Abu Safiya’s life: https://t.co/tq5d8BPF84
— Feroze Sidhwa (@FerozeSidhwa) July 8, 2026
The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel — established in 2021 by the U.N. Human Rights Council — on Wednesday urged Israeli authorities to immediately free the doctor and provide him with independent medical care.
Abu Safiya “has been subjected to continued and severe abuse” throughout his detention, and his current grave condition “is the direct result” of reported actions by Israel Prison Service guards, the panel said. It “reflects a broader pattern of violations previously identified in the commission’s reports.”
The U.N. experts pointed to their 2025 conclusion that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza and a 2024 publication that found
“Israeli security forces deliberately killed, wounded, detained, and severely mistreated medical personnel, constituting the war crimes of wilful killing and torture and the crime against humanity of extermination.”
They further demanded freedom for all arbitrarily detained Palestinian medical personnel, declaring that their continued detention “and the severe mistreatment they are subjected to are deplorable and flagrant violations of international law.”
In addition to Abu Safiya, Israel is holding at least 13 other senior doctors without charge — and they are among around 9,300 Palestinians “currently in Israeli custody, including thousands held arbitrarily without charge or trial,” according to the U.N. Human Rights Office in the territory. At least 91 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention since Oct. 7, 2023.
Since the Hamas-led attack that day, the U.S. government has stood by Israel under both the Biden and Trump administrations, even amid growing alarm among the American public and civil society over mounting civilian deaths in Gaza.
Amnesty InternationalUSA Executive Director Nadia Daar urged U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to intervene to free Abu Safiya.
Noting research that Amnesty previously sent to the State Department in July 2024, suggesting that “US assistance may be funding units of a foreign security force implicated in the commission of gross violations of human rights,” Daar wrote:
“In addition to reviewing US security assistance for Leahy violations, we call on you to swiftly take action to secure the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Abu Safiya. Pending his release, we further call on you to ensure that he is fully protected from further abuses and is provided with adequate access to medical care, food, and hygiene.”
Today we issued an emergency appeal to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asking him to secure the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a prominent Palestinian pediatrician who is facing an imminent threat to his life while in Israeli detention.…
— Amnesty International USA (@amnestyusa) July 8, 2026
The local UN Human Rights Office urged Israel to either free Abu Safiya, or “promptly charge him with a recognizable criminal offense and grant him a fair trial,” and either way, ensure he is transferred to a civilian hospital to receive necessary medical care.
“Israel must ensure that its laws governing the detention of Palestinians living under occupation comply with international legal norms and standards, including the prohibition of arbitrary detention and fair trial guarantees, and that its detention officials abide by those standards,” the office also said. “All arbitrarily detained Palestinians must be released with immediate effect.”
Efforts to secure their freedom through Israeli courts have been unsuccessful. Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said “in its response to the High Court petition on the 14 detained Gaza doctors, the state says that Dr. Abu Safiya has been examined by medical personnel several times since being transferred,” but “does not explain why those examinations were necessary, what their findings were, or how they are consistent with its claim that his life is not in danger.”
“The response also does not address the serious allegations detailed in the sworn affidavit of Dr. Abu Safiya’s lawyer, including severe injuries, repeated loss of consciousness, and a serious concern for his life,” the group detailed. “At the same time, the state asks the court to dismiss, without a hearing, the petition by Physicians for Human Rights Israel petition seeking the release of 14 doctors from Gaza who are being held in Israel without charge.”
PHRI said that the group
“rejects the state’s position, arguing that its response fails to address the central issue raised by the petition: The continued detention of 14 doctors without charge or trial despite the catastrophic shortage of medical personnel in Gaza and the ongoing collapse of its healthcare system.”
Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice — the U.N.’s top tribunal — over its mass slaughter in Gaza.
Rakefet is a modern-day torture dungeon. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyeh is in grave danger. https://t.co/c8L5vSvyjn
— Nour Odeh ??? #FreePalestine (@nour_odeh) July 8, 2026
Additionally, the International Criminal Court has issued warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes in the territory.
The U.N. commission nodded to those cases in its statement, stressing that
“Israel must adhere strictly to international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” and reiterating panel’s “intent on ensuring legal accountability, including individual criminal and command responsibility.
To that end, the commission is committed to investigating alleged violations of international law and identifying those responsible,” it said, “and will continue sharing information collected with relevant judicial authorities.”
Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
This article is from Common Dreams.
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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JANUARY 26, 2026, “The United States must immediately withdraw sanctions against judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and repeal Executive Order 14203 of February 2025, a UN expert said today, after a [FRESH] round of sanctions designations targeting judges was issued last month, DECEMBER 2025”.
JUNE 24, 2026,*“Sanctioned ICC judges sue Trump in New York. Three International Criminal Court judges filed the first lawsuit by sanctioned ICC judges themselves, saying U.S. measures targeting their work are unlawful and threaten judicial independence.” Eunseo Hong.
JULY 13, 2026, *“Sovereign States over Globalism.“ Little ‘Marco Lu’ Rubio, SOS, “vows diplomatic campaign to ‘dismantle’ ICC in escalating row”
….. “OPINION ARTICLE” TO: Plant, Animal & Human Life
….. FM: Little ‘Marco Lu’ Rubio, Secretary of $tate;
….. RE: International Criminal Court (ICC) vs. Trump-Vance, Inc., The Divided $tates of Corporate America’s Government’s Board of Executioners
Let it be known, “By working beside every ally with whom we can make common cause, we will dismantle the ICC — brick by brick, if necessary.” Little ‘Marco Lu’ Rubio. [“EVERY” Ally includes The US Congress].
The “proof of life” video by Little ‘Marco Lu’ Rubio “posted” @ The Wall $treet Journal & via Social Media, “comes after three (3) of the [ICC’s] “court’s judges filed a lawsuit in New York last month” [JUNE] “against the Trump administration. The lawsuit argues sanctions levied against them are unlawful.” Inphkndeed! IMO, 100%!!!
…..i.e., “THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — Frozen bank accounts, canceled credit cards and blocked travel led three International Criminal Court judges to sue the Trump administration Wednesday, arguing they were punished simply for the cases they decided.”
In the 66-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the trio asks a judge to : 1) Strike down [DJTrump’s] $anctions order, 2) Remove Judges Kimberly Prost, Solomy Bossa & Reine Alapini-Gansou from the U.S. sanctions list, 3) Unblock any frozen property & bar the government fm enforcing the measures against them.”
“After months of watching others challenge the sanctions, the first lawsuit by sanctioned ICC judges themselves has now arrived. Earlier lawsuits by U.S. human rights advocates resulted in rulings barring the administration from enforcing the order against Americans providing speech-based services to the ICC.” @ * hxxps://www.courthousenews.com/sanctioned-icc-judges-sue-trump-in-new-york/…… “Solidarity w/you, always!!! Onward & Upwards!” TY.
* hxxps://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5965865-us-fight-icc-rubio/
A severely criminal mass murdering syndicate, called ‘israel’.
With very specific responsible individuals to be held accountable!!!
zionists, pretending to be jewish to hide their evil deeds behind a holy curtain, abusing genuine jewish people as scapegoats.
Not having any problems also mass murdering jewish people, as they see fit.
See: ‘hannibal directive’
Progression (moving forward – Advancement), Regression (moving backwards – Decline).
In the first instance, by what international right did the British Crown have to negotiate the Native American (indigenous peoples) confederacies Proclamation of 1763?
“In 1763, the British Empire was at the height of its global power following a decisive victory in the Seven Years’ War, formalized by the Treaty of Paris (1763). However, this massive territorial expansion left the Crown deeply in debt and struggling to govern its vast new, hostile frontiers” such as the Americas were now perceived to be!.
The Oslo Accords of 1993, purportedly between all of the Palestinian peoples and the State of Israel, were devised through a series of secret, back-channel negotiations held in Norway between January and August of 1993.
In other words, concocted by the same devious strategic ruse as were the British Crowns deceptive methods of negotiation, in earlier times, in North America, between itself, the indigenous inhabitants of the land, and the ‘settlers’.
As mentioned above, International Law back then amounted to who controlled the world’s oceans.
Notwithstanding this fact, the British Crown did not yet even have colonies on the North American continent, prior to the ‘discovery’ of the Americas by the Spanish Crowns proxy, in 1492.
“The first successful English colony on the North American continent was (only) established in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.” True, the English had attempted to settle Roanoke Island, in present-day North Carolina, in 1585, but failed to do so.
In other words, the first contact the British Crown had with the indigenous peoples of the North American continent occurred almost a full century (93 years) after the Spanish invasion and landing, south of the Northern part of the continent of the now; then, so-called ‘Americas’.
The so-called “American Revolution” in fact meant counter revolutionary reaction for the indigenous peoples already on the land.
Not too dissimilar from the predicament the Palestinians of south western Asia find themselves in today in dealing with the colonial European invasion, settlement and dispossession of the land; not to mention the long ongoing ‘ethnic cleansing’ and genocide now being perpetrated on the indigenous peoples, by the colonial settlers.
Two steps backward! When will one actual step forward come about for humanity?
Note: With Assembled Intelligence (A.I.) paraphrased as confirmation of stated actual data detail
Once, again, a “United Nations commission has forcefully denounced Israel’s treatment of health workers from the besieged territory; and, “specifically demanded:
…. 1) “the immediate, unconditional, and safe release”of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya”(+) OTHERS
…. 2) $anctions “Lifted/Withdrawn!” HEADLINE, JANUARY 26, 2026 “UN expert demands withdrawal of sanctions against ICC judges and prosecutors, calls for repeal of executive order and repeal Executive Order 14203 of February 2025.”
MEMO TO: “Little ‘Marco Lu’ Rubio, Secretary of $tate
RE: $anctions. The ask: *“Pay It Forward”
….. Mr. Rubio, it’s LeoSun channeling The USG’s dickplomacy, “Lift the $anctions, you fkng ba$tard!” TY. Itsa call for action! The moment is NOW, *”He who tied the bell to the tiger must take it off” and “It takes two hands to clap.” Please, “channel” China’s diplomacy.”Sincerely, LeoSun.
*MARCH 20, 2022, “W/these simple dictums, Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Friday, rejected US President Joe Biden’s efforts to pressure Beijing into abandoning Russia on the Ukraine issue, while implicitly blaming Washington and its Nato allies for the crisis. While nearly half the statement dealt with Beijing’s unhappiness about what it sees as Washington’s shifting sentiment on Taiwan, China also pushed back at the western narrative on blaming only Russia for the crisis, flagging the need to address Russia’s security concerns vis-a-vis Nato.” TimesofIndia
*JANUARY 26, 2026, “The United States must immediately withdraw sanctions against judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and repeal Executive Order 14203 of February 2025, a UN expert said today, after a [FRESH] round of sanctions designations targeting judges was issued last month, DECEMBER 2025!!! The [LATEST] round of designations on 18 December 2025, brings the [TOTAL] number of [SANCTIONED] ICC prosecutors and judges to [ELEVEN] 11.
*MAY 16, 2026, In Lieu of, “Beijing to receive Rubio under the name “Marco Lu” without formally lifting sanctions tied to his original Chinese-language name; [ALLOWING] U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to enter the country for a summit w/[Trump-Vance, Inc], [DESPITE] sanctions Beijing imposed on him in 2020 remaining formally in place.” The Bsns Standard. (TBS). The ask: *“Pay It Forward.” TY.
*hxxps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/china-snubs-us-says-he-who-tied-bell-to-the-tiger-must-take-it-off/articleshow/90329640.cms
* hxxps://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/01/usa-un-expert-demands-withdrawal-sanctions-against-icc-judges-and
* hxxps://www.tbsnews.net/worldbiz/china/china-receives-rubio-marco-lu-unusual-diplomatic-workaround-sanctions-1440421
Words, words, words. They don’t change the trajectory of the genocide. Actions speak louder than words as the saying goes. How many more innocents have to die before action is taken to stop the killing and ethnic cleansing?
Yes, and I absolutely agree with Ms. Zaremba ( Carolyn). The American public ( which I include myself as part of) has become lulled into a semi-conscious state of worker beeism. We think we need to “focus on our own family, stay in our lane” determined not to hear the deafening sounds of literal torment, from people in all walks of life. Meanwhile, as we doze, absorption continues.
i’ve often said Carolyn, that the UN is about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.
(i think their “maybe’s etc are an attempt to distance themselves from ever directly accusing the zionist entity.)
Because of the veto the Security Council causes political paralysis, but the U.N is a vast system: the General Assembly expresses the will of the international community and many agencies do outstanding humanitarian work in dangerous conditions as well as courageous political work, such as the U.N. commission that concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. So the U.N. is not useless.
Of course they are. Then they can pretend that their support for genocide was just “maybe” an accident.
A world that politely asks a sadistic, murderous, lying regime of torturers to observe and respect the humanity of its prey does so because for some reason it cannot arrive at the decision or have the means to eradicate the monsters carrying out these atrocities.
It seems to me that there is sufficient firepower on this planet to destroy the IDF, all of its supporting personnel and infrastructure, and the political leadership of the ridiculous monstrosity known as “Israel,” but that individuals around the world who are in the position to deal with this in the only way that will end it won’t.
Increasingly, my problem is with them.
My problem has always been with them.
“Suggesting” that U.S. “assistance” “may be” funding gross violations of human rights!!!! What do they mean “may be”?? A genocide is being conducted before the eyes of the world, and the best the UN can do is “suggest” that there “may be” support for it?? This is ridiculous. The spineless UN deals in “maybes” while people are tortured and slaughtered by the thousands with the full support of the west.
The United Nations is useless.
The United Nations on how to address United States complicity in alleged war crimes and genocide, with UN personnel fearing professional or political retaliation if they speak out.
Francesca Albanese case in point.