LONDON: Two Israeli courts have rejected petitions seeking the release of 14 Palestinian doctors detained without charge or trial and an independent medical examination for a Gaza hospital director, Physicians for Human Rights Israel said on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court dismissed the group’s petition to release the doctors, including hospital directors and specialists, saying they found no grounds to intervene in the military chief of staff’s decision to keep them in detention.
In a separate ruling last month, the Lod District Court denied a request for Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, to undergo an independent medical examination and obtain a second opinion.
The rights group argued that the doctors’ detention, in some cases for more than two years, violated their rights and compounded a severe shortage of medical professionals in Gaza.
It urged the military chief to revoke their detention orders under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, citing the ceasefire and Gaza’s urgent medical needs.
The state maintained that the cases had been reviewed in light of changing circumstances and the shortage of doctors, but that no exceptional grounds justified their release.
In dismissing the petition, the Supreme Court also cited the state’s assurances that Abu Safiya, detained since December 2024, was receiving regular medical care and that his health was not at risk.…
