Published On 7/7/2026
|
Last update: 23:22 (Mecca time)
Palestinian and British crowds in support of the Palestinian cause are demonstrating in front of the British Prime Minister’s Office in London, raising slogans demanding the immediate release of Palestinian doctor Hossam Abu Safiya. This demonstration is a new episode in a series of active movements in support of Palestinian rights in the British capital.
The protesters point out that Doctor Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, became an icon for Palestinian prisoners, after he was arrested from inside the hospital where he was doing his work.
The demonstrators warn that his health condition has deteriorated significantly, according to what his lawyer reports, after a year and a half of solitary confinement, denial of treatment, and ill-treatment at the hands of his Israeli jailers.
Violating the rights of prisoners
Al Jazeera correspondent Asad Allah Al-Sawy said in an intervention from among the demonstrators that the protesters consider the arrest of Abu Safiya without a declared charge to be a blatant violation of his rights and the rights of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. The demonstrators also assert that the continuation of this situation constitutes an insult to humanitarian values and international laws, especially since Abu Safiya was managing the only hospital for children operating in the Gaza Strip at the time of his arrest.
In the same context, the protesters raised banners demanding the imposition of sanctions on Israel, the cessation of arms exports to it, and the immediate release of the detained Palestinian doctor.
They also chanted slogans against the occupation and the apartheid regime, calling for freedom for Palestine and for all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, in a scene that reflects the escalation of popular anger over what they describe as systematic violations.
In confirmation of this meaning, the protesters point out that the British government has presented only a symbolic position so far, as the Minister for the Middle East in the British Foreign Office tweeted, via the “X” platform, that the government raised the issue of the mistreatment of Doctor Abu Safiya with the Israeli authorities.
The official British position
On the other hand, Al Jazeera’s correspondent points out that the official British position does not seem strong at this time, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer announcing his intention to step down from power.
Observers believe that the state of political weakness that the government is experiencing makes it difficult to take firm steps towards Israel, while Al-Sawy points out that the active movement in Britain in support of Palestinian rights will not be the last, as long as Abu Safiya’s detention continues.
The doctor’s lawyer, Abu Safiya Nasser Odeh, said yesterday that the Israeli occupation authorities had transferred his client to solitary confinement, stressing that his health condition had become in serious danger as a result of his exposure to head and facial injuries that caused him difficulty breathing, as a result of the “systematic brutal assault” he was subjected to on a daily basis inside Israeli prisons.
Odeh explained, in an intervention on Al Jazeera, that he was able to visit Abu Safiya two days ago, where the doctor was brought to the visiting room with his hands and feet shackled and he showed clear signs of difficulty walking and moving around.
During the conversation that took place between them, the doctor expressed his real fears that this visit would not be repeated again, pointing out that the practices of the Israeli authorities aimed to intentionally harm him, which, according to the lawyer’s assessment, suggested that there was a prior decision to liquidate him and execute him inside the prison.
For its part, the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday described Israel’s detention of Dr. Abu Safiya in Gaza as arbitrary, and called for his immediate release, at a time when organizations concerned with human rights warned that his life was in imminent danger.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention confirmed in its report that Israel’s actions violate many articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
On the other hand, the Israeli Prison Service denied the rumors about the ill-treatment of Abu Safiya and other doctors in the prison, and the Israeli Supreme Court had previously refrained from commenting on the appeals. Submission submitted for his release.
