A leading physician from Gaza appears drastically changed due to serious harm suffered while in Israeli custody, according to his attorney, who warns of an immediate threat to his survival after 18 months of detention without formal charges.

Hussam Abu Safiya met his lawyer on 2 July following a move to the underground Rakefet prison in late June. He showed labored breathing, could not speak at length, lacked strength to remain upright, and often seemed close to fainting, said attorney Nasser Odeh.

The former director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, seized by Israeli forces, expressed fear for his own safety.

"They brought me here to kill me. I do not see myself surviving. This is the end," Odeh quoted him as saying in a joint statement with Physicians for Human Rights Israel and allied groups seeking his freedom.

His case forms part of a wider pattern of pressure on medical services across occupied Palestinian territories, said Milena Ansari of PHRI.

On Sunday a four-month-old Palestinian infant, Ahmad Maarouf Zaid, died after Israeli forces prevented his family from passing a checkpoint to reach an ambulance, relatives told the Guardian.

The family drove the critically ill child along rough mountain tracks to Ramallah, losing more than an hour before reaching care.

"The reports of a newborn dying after delays at a West Bank checkpoint, the arrest of a physician providing medical care, and the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza should not be understood as isolated incidents," Ansari said. "They reflect a broader pattern in which the conditions necessary to realise Palestinians' right to health are being systematically undermined."

Abu Safiya had symbolized health workers striving to treat patients amid the Gaza conflict before his arrest. He remains held indefinitely with thousands of other Palestinian civilians in facilities that Israeli rights organizations describe as sites of torture.

In late May he was moved from Ketziot prison to the Ganot complex and placed in solitary confinement without stated reason, Odeh said.

Abu Safiya described an assault by guards using hammers and batons shortly after a video-linked supreme court hearing on his detention. He was transferred to Rakefet on 24 June, where Odeh observed a sharp and dangerous decline in his health.

"I have visited Dr Abu Safiya several times since his detention, but the individual I encountered during this latest visit was not the same person I had previously met," Odeh said on Sunday, urging an urgent independent medical review. "His physical and psychological state, the severe injuries visible on his body, and his personal testimony leave no room for doubt: his life is in immediate danger."

Abu Safiya appeared frightened and hesitant to speak openly, Odeh said, yet reported daily beatings inside Rakefet and multiple episodes of losing consciousness.

Rakefet, where inmates never see daylight, was constructed in the 1980s for senior organized-crime figures, later closed as inhumane, and reopened under orders from national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Other detainees there described breathlessness and choking in unventilated, crowded cells even without injuries comparable to those reported by Abu Safiya.

An Israel prison service spokesperson called the claims from Odeh "false and entirely without factual basis" but declined to address Abu Safiya's health citing privacy rules.

The death of four-month-old Ahmad from Deir Ammar refugee camp was announced Sunday evening. A much-wanted child born after years of IVF, he had been healthy for most of his brief life. The family contacted emergency services when he developed a high fever and an ambulance was dispatched to the Ein Ayoub gate.

Since 7 October 2023 Israel has routinely barred vehicles including ambulances from using Ein Ayoub, the main route to Ramallah hospitals.

Residents may usually cross on foot, yet as Ahmad's parents neared the gate four Israeli soldiers halted them after firing tear gas nearby and disregarded urgent appeals. Video of the event circulated on X.

"This baby needed oxygen. If he had been allowed to reach an ambulance and get to the hospital, his life could have been saved," said Arafat Ahmad Zaid, the boy's uncle.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military denied blocking the family from seeking medical help. Zaid said the circumstances of his nephew's death intensified the family's sorrow.

"There are no words to describe the pain of watching your own child die in your arms while knowing there is nothing you can do to save him. That is the ultimate suffering. That is the ultimate humiliation."