In a cruel decision, the Ashkelon Magistrates Court in Israel has extended the detention without charge of Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, until February 13.

“This marks the second such extension since his arrest,” the Gaza-based human rights organization Al Mezan Center for Human Rights noted on Friday.

“The arbitrary detention of Dr Abu Safia and his colleagues is part of a broader pattern of systematic violations by Israel, aimed at the deliberate devastation of Gaza’s healthcare system,” it said in a statement.

Abu Safia was also denied access to a lawyer until January 22.

Abu Safia was arrested on December 27 during an Israeli raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza.

Following his arrest, reports indicate that he is being held at Sde Teiman, a military detention center notorious for documented cases of systematic torture against Palestinians.

Two former detainees recently released from this facility reported seeing Abu Safia last month, noting that he arrived in “poor condition.”

Concerns are mounting regarding Abu Safia’s safety.

MedGlobal, a humanitarian NGO, condemned his arrest as “unjust and a violation of international humanitarian law.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) also expressed its dismay, stating it was “appalled” by the raid on the hospital.

Since the escalation of the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza in Gaza, hospitals and ambulances have been targeted multiple times and more than 500 doctors and medical staff killed by the Israeli forces, Prompting severe condemnation from the UN health agency.

In a recent statement, the agency highlighted the dire situation, asserting that “the systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege lasting over 80 days on northern Gaza puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk.”

Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy groups have said that at least 10,400 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails as of this month.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs announced in a joint statement on Thursday.

According to the statement, 320 children and 87 women are among the detainees.

Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 46,006 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 109,378 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

Israel has also ramped up violence against Palestinians in the West Bank since it launched the genocidal war in Gaza, killing at least 847 Palestinians and abducting thousands of others.