JERUSALEM: An Israeli rights organisation petitioned the country’s top court on Thursday to demand the immediate release of 14 Palestinian doctors from Gaza who have been held without charge for more than a year.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said the doctors have been denied adequate medical care and food and subjected to physical abuse while in detention. The group said they are being held under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows for indefinite detention without charge.

“The Israeli army already investigated them and despite the lack of any evidence incriminating them ... (prosecutors) decided to continue their detention,” said lawyer Nasser Odeh, who represents Hussam Abu Safiya, the detained director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Israel’s prison service said it rejected all allegations that the doctors had been mistreated in prison. It was not immediately clear if or when the court would hear the petition.

The 14 doctors are among nearly 400 healthcare workers detained by Israel during its two-year assault on Gaza. Many of those detained were freed in prisoner exchanges after ceasefires, including a US-backed truce in October intended to halt fighting.

Around 60 healthcare workers remain in detention, including the doctors represented by PHRI.

None of the 14 doctors has been formally charged or told why they are being held, the organisation said.

Abu Safiya is the most prominent of the doctors still being held. His arrest during an Israeli raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza in late 2024 drew international condemnation.

His brother, Muafaq Abu Safiya, said they were informed by their lawyer that Hussam Abu Safiya had lost 40 kg (88 lb) while in prison, and suffered four fractured ribs.

“All the crimes inflicted on him by the occupation were just because he refused to leave the hospital and patients.”

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2026