Israel currently holds over 1,300 Palestinian detainees under the terms of the law for unlawful combatants, in a practice known as administrative detention.<\/p>\n
\t Such detainees include those arrested by the Israel Defense Forces and security services inside Gaza and the West Bank during military operations, but who have not been charged with a crime.<\/p>\n The measure sees individuals held without charge for up to six months at a time, under limited court review. The detentions can be renewed indefinitely while allowing military prosecutors to keep suspects from being able to see the evidence against them.<\/p>\n The tool is typically used when authorities have intelligence tying a suspect to a crime but do not wish to reveal the source of the information.<\/p>\n A series of reports<\/a> issued by the Public Defender\u2019s Office and revealed in January found that Palestinian security detainees held in Israeli prisons suffer from severe and systematic violence from prison guards, deprivation of food and medical neglect, as well as unsanitary conditions that caused and exacerbated outbreaks of disease in the prisons.<\/p>\n The reports were made public after a yearlong legal battle by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which filed a freedom of information request to gain access to the documents, after the Justice Ministry refused to release them.<\/p>\n Official inspectors described one prison they visited as \u201cnot fit to hold human beings,\u201d and said of another that their findings showed \u201cunnecessary and unjustified violence against prisoners\u201d carried out \u201con a regular basis and on numerous occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has authority over the Israel Prison Service and its policies, has repeatedly boasted of the harsh conditions he has imposed on Palestinian detainees and prisoners.<\/p>\n MSF demands Israel release detained Palestinian health workers<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) called for the immediate release of all Palestinian healthcare workers \u201carbitrarily detained\u201d by Israel.<\/p>\n \u201cMSF is outraged by the treatment of healthcare workers, most of whom are being detained in dire conditions, without justification or cause,\u201d it said in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n The medical charity joined calls for the release of Abu Safiya.<\/p>\n \t His detention \u201cfollows an appalling pattern of the Israeli authorities detaining and targeting medical staff across Palestine,\u201d said Geneva-based MSF.<\/p>\n Israel said earlier this month that his detention was \u201clawful,\u201d and rejected reports of him suffering from a life-threatening condition. However, it said<\/a> that Abu Safiya was under medical monitoring, though it didn\u2019t explain why the several medical examinations were necessary.<\/p>\n The statement came after a United Nations investigative team and several UN rights experts raised the alarm about the case.<\/p>\n About 50 people, including doctors, trade unionists and pro-Palestinian activists, gathered outside France\u2019s Foreign Ministry in Paris on Thursday to call for his release.<\/p>\n MSF said that its orthopedic surgeon Mohammed Obeid \u201chas been detained in Israel for more than 600 days, in difficult conditions, and without any contact with his family.\u201d<\/p>\n Doctors Without Borders said he was arrested by Israeli forces on October 26, 2024, while on duty at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which the IDF has said the terror group uses for military operations.<\/p>\n \t It reiterated its call for his immediate and unconditional release.<\/p>\n \u201cThe practice of arbitrarily detaining, torturing and abusing Palestinian medical staff in Israel is unacceptable. For too long, too many world leaders have failed to condemn Israel\u2019s conduct in Palestine,\u201d the non-governmental organization said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe call for the release of all arbitrarily detained medical personnel immediately. Pending their release, they must be granted access to adequate medical care and dignified detention conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n MSF added that 15 of its colleagues had been killed since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre.<\/p>\n Israel has accused some MSF staffers it has killed or arrested in Gaza of being members of terror groups. For example, in the case of Fadi al-Wadiya, killed in 2024, MSF denied<\/a> he was a member of Islamic Jihad and claimed Israel had provided no evidence of his activities, but in February, the terror group named<\/a> him as a high-ranking operative.<\/p>\n In October 2025, a ceasefire was reached in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, though violence has persisted since.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can’t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.<\/p>\n \u2014 Stav Levaton, military reporter<\/p>\n \t\t\t
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\n\t\tFootage shows Palestinian prisoners in scenes filmed during National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir\u2019s visit to the Ofer Prison on February 13, 2026. (Screenshots\/X)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DUAL-5-640x400.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tL-R: Kamal Adwan Hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya, in an undated screenshot taken from a Democracy Now video posted to YouTube on January 14, 2025. (Democracy Now screenshot\/YouTube); A resurfaced photo from 2016 shows Abu Safiya wearing a Hamas uniform alongside other senior officers in the terror group. (Medical services \u2013 Gaza Strip)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/9b3a1616-042e-40d5-aad2-ee2d1ff873e9-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tPalestinians evacuate from northern Gaza\u2019s Kamal Adwan Hospital, in a handout photo issued by the military on December 29, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)<\/p>\n
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