Physicians for Human Rights Israel

Professionals within Israel’s public healthcare system — such as physicians, social workers, physical therapists, and nurses — encounter daily obstacles when delivering care and support to status-less patients, including migrant workers, asylum seekers, and refugees.
These obstacles stem from the absence of health and welfare policies designed to support these populations. The limited responses currently available offer healthcare professionals few practical tools to adequately address the needs of some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people living among us, often leaving them as witnesses to the ethical harming of patients.

This harm occurs when status-less patients are refused emergency-room treatment because of prior medical debt; when patients are pressured to leave the hospital and transition to community-based care, or even return to the street, to prevent further accumulation of hospital debt; and even when patients have health insurance, but insurers refuse to cover essential services or abruptly cancel coverage in the middle of treatment. It also occurs when infants are denied essential and complex medical care because they are no longer deemed eligible for it.

For healthcare professionals working with status-less patients, the tension between the demands of their role and their capacity to fulfill those demands creates a profound gap.
Through our work, we often see healthcare professionals moving mountains for their patients, challenging hospital administrations, the Ministry of Health, the National Insurance Institute, private insurance companies, and local authorities. Sometimes these efforts manage to bend the system, if only slightly. Sometimes they take place under the radar. Sometimes simply bringing a case to light is enough to drive change. But in most cases, the system remains inflexible, leaving patients to suffer without the care they need.

Help us promote First Line, our confidential channel for reporting and advice on these issues. Join us in the fight to ensure that healthcare workers can protect their patients’ health and lives.

Join us in the fight to ensure that healthcare workers can protect their patients’ health and lives.

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Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya to his lawyers: "Do everything possible to get me out of this place."

During another visit at the underground Rakefet detention facility, he reported that he had once again been beaten by prison guards following his previous visit and has since been held alone in solitary confinement. He said his finger was injured and that he was also suffering from a problem with his right eye, yet he was not receiving adequate medical care.

The visit took place under conditions that did not allow for confidential communication: behind an opaque partition, via telephone, while masked prison guards remained within earshot.

Dr. Abu Safiya, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, has been detained since December 2024 without charge or trial, along with 13 other doctors and dozens of healthcare workers. Despite repeated reports of violence and the denial of adequate medical care, the Israel Prison Service has yet to provide his medical records or allow an independent physician from PHRI to examine him.

We call for Dr. Abu Safiya's immediate release, for his removal from solitary confinement and from the underground detention facility pending his release, to be granted an independent and impartial medical and legal examination, and to receive adequate medical care while his safety and well-being are ensured.

Hussain Mattar is one of thousands of cancer patients awaiting urgent medical evacuation.

Israel has blocked the medical corridor that for years enabled patients in Gaza to reach hospitals in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, for lifesaving care. Today, more than 18,500 patients are waiting for treatment that is unavailable in Gaza, while essential medicines continue to run out.

On July 19, the Israeli Supreme Court will hear our petition to reopen this medical corridor. More than 1,500 patients have already died while waiting to access medical care outside .

Healthcare cannot wait. Support our call to reopen the medical corridor.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a pediatrician and the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was detained December 26, 2024, from Kamal Adwan Hospital while performing his medical duties. He remains in custody without charges.
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During a conversation with him, Dr. Abu Safiya mentioned that he is still in need of his glasses who were confiscated at the time of his detention, and he was not provided with an alternative since. He also mentioned that he has lost a significant amount of weight and now suffers from skin infections caused by severe conditions.
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Dr. Abu Safiya is among dozens of healthcare workers from Gaza who are being unlawfully detained by Israel and subjected to inhumane conditions and ongoing medical neglect.
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Over the past two years, detained healthcare workers have reported enduring severe prison conditions, including starvation, medical neglect, violence, and torture. These conditions have led to the deaths of at least 103 detainees, including five healthcare workers from Gaza. As Gaza’s healthcare system continues to collapse under the weight of widespread destruction and critical shortages, Israel continues to detain its physicians without trial, in violation of international law.
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Gaza’s healthcare system cannot recover while the physicians responsible for saving lives remain imprisoned. We call for the detention orders against these physicians to be revoked and for their immediate release, so they can reunite with their families and communities and resume their life-saving work.
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It is our responsibility to demand their immediate release.
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Use of the photo is made in accordance with Section 27A of the Copyright Law.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel