TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The lawyer for a prominent Palestinian doctor who was seized by Israeli forces 18 months ago said his client has been abused in captivity and is in critical condition, according to the human rights group representing him.
Hussam Abu Safiya who served as director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, became the face of health workers struggling to treat patients throughout the Israel-Hamas war.
He led the facility through an 85-day siege by the Israeli military, releasing videos in which he pleaded for help before he was arrested in December 2024. He has not been charged.
The Israeli military said Abu Safiya, 53, was being investigated on suspicion of cooperating with or working for Hamas. Staff and international aid groups that worked with him deny the claims.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Abu Safiya’s lawyer, Nasser Odeh, said Abu Safiya appeared extremely weak and struggled to sit upright during a visit on July 2. Odeh said he had recent head injuries around his eyes, ears and neck and experienced difficulty breathing.
Odeh and Physicians for Human Rights Israel said they have petitioned to have Abu Safiya transferred to another facility.
Abu Safiya faced physical and psychological abuse and was kept in solitary confinement for extended periods, Odeh said following an appearance before Israel’s Supreme Court last month challenging his continued detainment without charge.
Abu Safiya appeared briefly by video during that hearing, looking pale and gaunt and with lash-like marks on both arms.
Israel’s Prison Service called the allegations “false and entirely without factual basis.” The prison service declined to discuss the case directly, citing privacy concerns, but said all prisoners and detainees are held in accordance with the law and receive medical care based on Ministry of Health guidelines.
“The Israel Prison Service rejects allegations of abuse, torture, starvation, or denial of medical treatment,” the prison service said.
Israel has faced severe criticism over its treatment of Palestinian prisoners and detainees since the start of its war with Hamas in October 2023. Human rights organizations and the United Nations have alleged systematic patterns of abuse.
The number of Palestinians in Israeli detention surged after the start of the war and thousands remain in detention. The Associated Press has previously reported on the dire conditions in prisons.
The war between Israel and Hamas began Oct. 7, 2023, after the Gaza-based militant group led an attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage. Since then, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo and Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
FILE - A woman holds a sign that reads "Free Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, Free Gaza" during a protest in front of the Shin Bet offices, calling for his release, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Hundreds of firefighters battled wildfires in Portugal and Greece Sunday, with Spain and Italy sending reinforcements to Portugal to help battle a massive blaze burning for more than three days.
In Greece, authorities on Sunday urged residents of parts of Thessaloniki, the second largest Greek city, to remain indoors and shut their windows and doors due to toxic smoke from a burning recycling plant that was engulfed by a wildfire on the outskirts of the city.
In central Portugal’s Vouzela area, more than 1,200 firefighters backed up by nearly 400 vehicles and 15 aircraft tried to put out a blaze that broke out on Thursday, according to the country’s Civil Protection authority. The wildfire had burned across an area of 12,000 hectares (120 square kilometers, 46 square miles) by Sunday, information from the European Union’s Copernicus satellite mapping agency showed.
The European Union’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid said Spain sent 120 firefighters and 45 vehicles as reinforcements to Portugal on Friday, while three firefighting aircraft from Italy and Spain were also dispatched to help.
On the other side of southern Europe in Greece, a fast-moving blaze at a recycling plant broke out Saturday evening near the Oraiokastro suburb of Thessaloniki, triggering evacuation alerts for three suburbs and a facility housing 157 people with special needs.
Strong winds fanned the flames, and around 160 firefighters were deployed to battle the flames through the night until water-dropping aircraft could take off at dawn, the fire department said.
Oraiokastro mayor Pandelis Tsakiris said on Greece’s state broadcaster ERT that several businesses and homes were damaged by the fire, but that a clearer picture would emerge after authorities conduct a full evaluation.
A 76-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of having started the blaze through negligence by generating sparks with his vehicle that set vegetation near the road alight, the fire department said. He was due to appear before a prosecutor Sunday.
The fire came days after another wildfire in a nearby area killed a 12-year-old boy and his father.
Fire department spokesman Brig. Ioannis Artopoios, speaking on ERT television Sunday, said that about 85% of wildfires in Greece were caused by negligence, including through sparks generated through the use of agriculture machinery, discarded cigarettes and the use of outdoor barbecues. “This means most of them could have been avoided,” he said.
Greece suffers frequent, often devastating, wildfires during its hot, dry summers. In 2018, a blaze east of Athens killed more than 100 people, while a massive fire in 2023 which tore through a remote nature reserve in northeastern Greece was the largest wildfire recorded in the European Union.
The country has increasingly turned to technology to combat the threat of fires, exacerbated by climate change. It is integrating an array of four satellites, launched into low orbit in May, that will monitor for wildfires.
So far this summer, Greece has been spared the heatwaves that have scorched much of western Europe in recent weeks. But it has still seen dozens of blazes across the country, both on the mainland and the country's islands.
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire at a warehouse during a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
A helicopter drops water over a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Thick smoke rises above Filothei settlement during a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Blazes rise from a burning building during a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, early Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Firefighters and others are silhouetted in front of a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, July 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
