“Beaten Until His Eye Was Bleeding”: Abu Safiya Held at Israel’s Sde Teiman

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who was abducted by Israeli forces during their recent raid on the medical facility, is being held at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility, according to a CNN report.

“Two Palestinian prisoners released this weekend from the facility said they saw Abu Safiya at the prison, and another former detainee said he heard Abu Safiya’s name being read out,” the CNN report said.

Ahmad Al Sayyed Saleem, 18, said a doctor from the Abu Safiya family was brought into the prison on Saturday. Saleem, who is from northern Gaza and said he knew Dr. Abu Safiya, was detained 42 days ago at an Israeli checkpoint when he forcibly fled northern Gaza and was on his way to Gaza City.

Yahya Zaqout, who was arrested 42 days ago, said he did not see Dr. Abu Safiya was in the cell next to his.

“I heard them calling his name between the names they call every morning and night, and we had men that were brought to our cell and told us they were detained along with Dr. Hussam,” he said.

Alaa Abu Banat, a former inmate who was detained 43 days ago on his way home, said he knows Dr. Abu Safiya and a medical team from Kamal Adwan hospital were brought into Sde Teiman.

“They are all still in detention. They treated them really badly, especially the doctors,” he said.

Abu Banat said one man who shared his cell told him he is a doctor and said he was beaten “until his eye was bleeding.” The cellmate had spoken to Dr. Abu Safiya.

Dr. Abu Safiya’s family told CNN: “Sde Teiman is known for brutality and torture, we can’t imagine what our father is going through in that place and if he is well or not, warm or cold… hungry or in pain.”

“It is widely known the immense efforts he has made since the beginning of the war to support the only healthcare system for the residents of north Gaza,” the statement read.

On Friday morning, the hospital was stormed by Israeli forces, following nearly three months of a suffocating blockade and constant air strikes on its departments and their vicinity.

The bombing caused several departments to catch fire, killing and wounding Palestinian medical workers and patients, according to Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.

All remaining medical staff, patients and their relatives were taken out of the hospital at gunpoint, forced to strip down to their underwear and transferred to an unknown location.

At the time of the raid, there were 350 people in the hospital, including 180 medical workers and 75 wounded people, according to the Gaza-based Government Media Office.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said dozens of doctors were taken to detention centres for interrogation.

On Saturday, it confirmed that Abu Safiya had been arrested. Israeli forces violently beat him before his arrest, Bursh told Al Jazeera.

Over the past three months, Abu Safiya, a paediatrician, has published dozens of videos and sent out pleas to the international community to act against the Israeli attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital.

He repeatedly warned that the lives of patients and medical staff were in danger amid constant Israeli bombings and a siege preventing the entry of aid and food.

In late October, Abu Safiya’s son died as a result of an earlier Israeli raid on the hospital, according to health officials.
A month later, he was wounded in an Israeli air strike on the hospital complex.

Fears are now growing for Dr. Abu Safiya’s safety, as he may face the same fate as Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, an orthopedic surgeon who continued treating the wounded amid Israeli airstrikes. Al-Bursh was abducted by Israeli forces on December 19, 2023, and taken to Sde Teiman, where he was likely raped, tortured, and murdered while in custody.