Who are the 95 Palestinian healthcare workers held captive by Israel?
Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), Amnesty International UK, doctors and healthcare workers protested outside St Thomas’ Hospital in central London on 20 October 2025
Hanna Duggal and Mohammed Haddad report in Al Jazeera on 22 October 2025:
More doctors and healthcare professionals are mobilising and calling for action to demand the release of Dr Hussam Abu Safia and at least 94 other Palestinian medics currently held captive by Israeli authorities.
On Monday, in an event organised by Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW) and Amnesty International UK, doctors and healthcare workers protested outside St Thomas’ Hospital in central London, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all the detained healthcare workers currently held in appalling conditions in Israel.
The protest comes just days after an Israeli court extended Abu Safia’s arbitrary detention for another six months under the widely condemned Unlawful Combatants Law.
A further five healthcare workers have died or been killed while in Israeli detention, and five more are missing, their whereabouts unknown. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 1,722 healthcare workers have been killed in Israeli strikes in the past two years.
According to HWW, most healthcare workers were abducted by the Israeli military from their hospitals or ambulances while they were on duty. Testimonies collected by HWW and other organisations catalogue the torture and abuse that Palestinians endure in Israeli detention.
Dr Rebecca Inglis, of HWW, says: “Israel’s continued detention of nearly one hundred healthcare workers is in clear contravention of International Humanitarian Law. We are gravely concerned for their welfare given the extensive evidence that Palestinian detainees are being tortured while in Israeli detention.”