Sakharov Prize: Greens/EFA call on MEPs to back detained Gaza doctor Hussam Abu Safiya
The Greens/EFA group, together with The Left, has nominated Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya for the European Parliament's 2026 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
Dr. Abu Safiya is a Palestinian pediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. He kept the hospital running through severe shortages, repeated evacuation orders and attacks, treating the wounded, especially children, and documenting the collapse of Gaza's healthcare system. In October 2024, he lost his own son. Two months later, on 27 December 2024, Israeli forces raided the hospital and detained him together with medical staff and patients. Kamal Adwan, then the last major functioning hospital in northern Gaza, shut down after the raid.
More than 21 months later, Dr. Abu Safiya remains in Israeli detention without charge or trial. His detention has been repeatedly extended under the Unlawful Combatants Law. Human rights organisations report prolonged solitary confinement and denial of essential medical care, and UN experts have called for his immediate release.
Greens/EFA MEP, Catarina Vieira, comments:
"Dr. Abu Safiya kept saving the children of others, even after losing his own son. Today he sits in a cell without charge or trial. His case is not an isolated tragedy: he stands for the doctors, nurses, aid workers and journalists who have been killed in Gaza, and for the thousands of Palestinians held without due process. Awarding him the Sakharov Prize would be a clear statement that healthcare workers must never be targets of war, and that this Parliament stands by international law. This candidacy comes from the Greens and the Left, but the values behind it run deeper than political lines. I urge colleagues in every group to support it.”
The joint committees will vote on a shortlist of three finalists on 19 October in Brussels. The laureate will be chosen by the Conference of Presidents on 22 October, and the prize will be awarded in December.
