STATEMENT: MSF calls for the immediate release of all Palestinian healthcare workers arbitrarily detained by Israel ​

Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, remains in solitary confinement after being detained for 1.5 years. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is outraged by the treatment of healthcare workers, most of whom are being detained in dire conditions, without justification or cause. We join global calls for their immediate release. Dr Abu Safiya’s placement into solitary confinement and reported torture follows an appalling pattern of the Israeli authorities detaining and targeting medical staff across Palestine.

His case is not isolated. According to the Healthcare Workers Watch, 95 Palestinian healthcare workers remain detained by Israeli authorities since October 2023. During the same time, 1,700 health staff have been killed, as well as 15 MSF colleagues.

MSF orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Mohammed Obeid, has been detained in Israel for more than 600 days, in difficult conditions, and without any contact with his family. He was arrested on 26 October 2024 by Israeli forces while on duty at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, Palestine. ​ We continue calling for his immediate and unconditional release.

The 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’s conduct in Palestine. Silence has become complicity.

We 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.

Jane Rabothata

Communications Specialist, Doctors Without Borders

• jane.rabothata@joburg.msf.org
• 0712873613

About Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is a global network of principled medical and other professionals who specialise in medical humanitarian work, driven by our common humanity and guided by medical ethics. We strive to bring emergency medical care to people caught in conflicts, crises, and disasters in more than 70 countries worldwide.

In South Africa, we currently run a non-communicable diseases (NCDs) project in Butterworth, Eastern Cape province, where we support the Department of Health (DoH) in improving care for patients with diabetes and hypertension. The project focuses on improving screening, diagnosis, management, and prevention of NCDs through advocacy, research, health promotion, training, and mentorship of Community Healthcare Workers.

MSF is also recognised as one of the pioneers in providing antiretroviral treatment (ART) in the public sector. It started the first HIV programme in South Africa in 1999. The organisation's earlier interventions in the country have primarily been on developing new testing and treatment strategies for HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB) in Eshowe (Kwa-Zulu Natal) and Khayelitsha (Western Cape). The Eshowe project was handed over to DoH in 2023 after 12 years of operations. The Khayelitsha project was closed in 2020 after 22 years of activities and campaigning for improved HIV and TB treatment.

Other projects we have been involved in include our Migrant Project in the country's capital, Tshwane, which was handed over to authorities and a local Community-Based Organisation after building the capacity to work with undocumented populations. We also previously offered free, high-quality, and confidential medical care to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Rustenburg, North West province.

To learn more about our work in South Africa, please visit this page on our website (www.msf.org.za). To support MSF’s work:

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