Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Monday demanded the immediate release of all Palestinian health workers held by Israel, singling out Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, who has been detained since December 2024, and MSF surgeon Mohammed Obeid, held for over 600 days without contact with his family. The medical charity, speaking from Geneva, described the detentions as arbitrary and condemned the “deplorable conditions” in which most detainees are held, accusing world leaders of complicity through prolonged silence.

The call comes as Gaza’s health infrastructure lies in ruins. Palestinian health officials report that more than 60 per cent of medical facilities are non-functional, starved of fuel, medicine, and electricity. Doctors operate without anaesthesia. Since October 2023, over 1,700 health workers have been killed and at least 95 remain in Israeli custody, according to monitoring groups. The World Health Organization has documented 137 attacks on health facilities in Gaza, killing 521 people including 16 medical staff.

A parallel collapse in water and sanitation is fuelling a surge in preventable disease. UN assessments indicate that more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people survive on less than six litres of drinking water per day; MSF puts the figure even lower, at 4.3 litres, compared with 85 litres before the war. Untreated sewage is seeping into the coastal aquifer, and aid agencies report that skin diseases, acute respiratory infections, and watery diarrhoea now dominate clinic visits. UNICEF has recorded over 9,300 suspected chickenpox cases in overcrowded tent camps where isolation is impossible and clean water is a luxury.

Viewed from Jerusalem, Israeli officials maintain that Dr. Abu Safiya’s detention is lawful and reject reports that his health is at risk. The military says it targets militants operating from medical facilities. Meanwhile, settler groups, backed by government ministers, organised a march toward Gaza over the weekend, and settler violence in the West Bank has displaced more than 1,000 Palestinian children, according to Save the Children. In a separate development, Hamas elected Khalil al-Hayya, a hardliner close to Iran, as its new political leader, signalling continuity in the movement’s stance.

The International Criminal Court is already investigating possible war crimes in the enclave, and its investigators have interviewed staff from Al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals, where mass graves were discovered after Israeli withdrawals. The next factual milestone will be whether the court’s evidence-gathering leads to formal charges, a step that could reshape the legal landscape for all parties.