Dr Hussam Abu Safiya is the head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya – one of the last hospitals in Northern Gaza which was still providing medical treatment. The facility was first attacked by Israeli forces in December 2023, but then came under siege and renewed targeting in October. 57 doctors were arrested, Abu Safiya was injured, and his son Ibrahim was murdered by a drone, but he still continued trying to serve his patients there, with a few nurses and one other doctor. Later in November a 13-year-old girl was wounded by artillery fire along with several other staff and patients in the paediatric ward, and then water tanks were targeted too.
Israel claims the hospital is used for terrorist infrastructure, but the only evidence they have given is a Palestinian’s testimony given under ‘interrogation’ and a few photos of weaponry allegedly found in or near the hospital.
Between Christmas and New Year, Israeli military again violently raided the hospital, evicting patients and doctors. Abu Safiya was detained by the occupying soldiers, stripped in freezing conditions, and according to his family even used as a human shield during their military operations.
Israel admits to detaining 240 Palestinians at the hospital, and video appears to show the doctor being led into an Israeli military vehicle, before soldiers set fire to the hospital.
According to multiple documented testimonies collected by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Abu Safiya was taken to a mobile interrogation site in the Jabalia Refugee Camp where he was beaten and whipped, and then transferred to the Sde Teyman military camp under Israeli military control.
Reports from prisoners who have been released suggest he was being tortured there, despite his already serious injuries. This follows an evil pattern of torture and death meted out to doctors in Israeli custody. In November 2023, Dr. Iyad Al-Rantisi, head of the obstetrics department at Kamal Adwan Hospital, died after a week of torture at a Shin Bet interrogation centre in Ashkelon. In April the orthopaedics head at Al-Shifa hospital, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh, was tortured and murdered at the Ofer Detention Centre – see Real Media’s coverage.
In response to a request for information by Physicians For Human Rights (Israel), the Israeli authorities claimed they have no record of Abu Safiya’s detention or arrest.
On Monday, health professionals answered a call by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Fransesca Albanese, for doctors to stage solidarity actions calling to cut ties with Israel, under the banner “sick from genocide”. In the U.S. Doctors Against Genocide organised worldwide protests, and in the UK in the morning a small group of health professionals rallied outside Parliament.
Among them was obstetrician Dr Alice Clack, who said:
“Not only is the destruction of the Gazan healthcare system by Israeli forces, along with all other essential Gazan infrastructure, a further attack on the Gazan population who now have no or very limited access to medical care, but the treatment of health workers also reflects the extreme contempt that the Israeli government has shown for international humanitarian laws and ethical values.”
Later on that day, a larger protest attracted more than a thousand health workers and allies outside Parliament.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced an “urgent call for the respect and protection of medical facilities in line with international humanitarian law…This protection is a legal obligation and a moral imperative to preserve human life.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was “appalled” by the Kamal Adwan raid and called out the “systematic dismantling of the health system” in Gaza by Israeli forces.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is calling “on all concerned states, international entities, and UN bodies to take immediate and effective measures to secure the unconditional release of Dr. Abu Safiya”.
MedGlobal calls on the Israeli leadership and supporting governments, including the United States, “to end the bombing of health facilities, release arbitrarily detained health workers, and allow and facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid”.
In the UK on Tuesday MPs tabled an Early Day Motion calling for Abu Safiya’s release along with other detained medical personnel.
Doctors Against Genocide have launched a petition calling for release and an end to genocide.
Last month, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
Shortly before his abduction, Dr Abu Safiya recorded this video message to US President-Elect Donald Trump. (This was before Mr Trump’s threat to “bring hell to the Middle East”).
