Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, who served as director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza before his arrest by Israeli forces, has been described as "almost unrecognisable" by his lawyer following a visit to Rakefet prison — an underground Israeli facility reopened under far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after being closed on humanitarian grounds. Lawyer Nasser Odeh reported that Abu Safiya, held without charge or trial for 18 months, showed severe visible injuries, struggled to breathe and sit upright, and told him: "They brought me here to kill me. I don't see myself surviving." Rights group Physicians for Human Rights Israel, which is calling for his immediate release and an independent medical examination, says his case reflects what it describes as a systematic pattern of Israeli attacks on Palestinian healthcare, a concern compounded by the separate death this week of a four-month-old Palestinian infant who died after Israeli soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint blocked his family from reaching a waiting ambulance.