Israel continues to hold 80 Palestinian doctors and medical workers from Gaza and 15 from the occupied West Bank.
More doctors and healthcare professionals are mobilising and calling for action to demand the release of Dr Hussam Abu Safia and at least 94 other Palestinian medics currently held captive by Israeli authorities.
On Monday, in an event organised by Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW) and Amnesty International UK, doctors and healthcare workers protested outside St Thomas’ Hospital in central London, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all the detained healthcare workers currently held in appalling conditions in Israel.
The protest comes just days after an Israeli court extended Abu Safia’s arbitrary detention for another six months under the widely condemned Unlawful Combatants Law.
A further five healthcare workers have died or been killed while in Israeli detention, and five more are missing, their whereabouts unknown. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 1,722 healthcare workers have been killed in Israeli strikes in the past two years.
According to HWW, most healthcare workers were abducted by the Israeli military from their hospitals or ambulances while they were on duty. Testimonies collected by HWW and other organisations catalogue the torture and abuse that Palestinians endure in Israeli detention.
Dr Rebecca Inglis, an intensive care doctor and co-founder of Gaza Medic Voices, says: “Israel’s continued detention of nearly one hundred healthcare workers is in clear contravention of International Humanitarian Law. We are gravely concerned for their welfare given the extensive evidence that Palestinian detainees are being tortured while in Israeli detention.”
Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza, was arrested by Israeli forces on December 27, 2024, after troops raided the hospital, which at the time was one of the last functioning medical facilities in the region.
Amnesty International says that the hospital director has been held without charge or trial under an Israeli security law.
At least 94 percent of hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, with many no longer operational. In addition to this, skilled doctors and healthcare workers have been killed, and paired with the detention of healthcare workers – most of whom were detained while working within hospitals and healthcare facilities – it has added to the immense pressure on Gaza’s vulnerable health system.
Between October 7, 2023, to October 20, 2025, HWW documented a total of 431 cases of detained Palestinian healthcare workers.
As of October 20, 2025:
Who is Dr Hussam Abu Safia?
HWW has said it has not yet received an update from the families of 22 detained healthcare workers, who are not included in the “confirmed detained” or “confirmed released” figures.
The healthcare professionals still detained by Israel have spent an average of 511 days in detention, with some held captive since the early weeks of the war.
Most of the healthcare workers lived in North Gaza, with 36 of the prisoners from there, followed by 24 from Khan Younis, 18 from Gaza City and 3 from Rafah.
The table below lists more information about the 95 healthcare workers still held captive by Israel.
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