Calls Grow for Release of Gaza Hospital Director Abducted by Israeli Forces
Gaza (Quds News Network)- Calls have grown for the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, after he was abducted by Israeli forces during a raid on the area’s last remaining medical facility.
Kamal Adwan Under Israeli Attack
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.
Reports have confirmed that Abu Sagiya is now being held in the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility.
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.
Growing Calls
Fears are growing for Dr. Hussam 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.
BREAKING: Reports have come out that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyeh has been transferred to the notorious torture prison, Sde Teiman, where Palestinians are Sodomized and beaten.
Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh was executed in the same prison.
Please keep sharing! pic.twitter.com/YBHs9iRzhk
— Khalissee (@Kahlissee) December 29, 2024
PLEASE CALL FOR HIS RELEASE BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!
Israel has now arrested Dr. Hussam Abu Safeyeh.
My Biggest Fear is that they could torture him and execute him like they did with Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh. pic.twitter.com/NUCqgwWo2V
— Ryan Rozbiani (@RyanRozbiani) December 29, 2024
The last picture of Abu Safiya, widely shared on social media, showed him walking towards an Israeli tank near the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Bande de Gaza, décembre 2024.
Une photo qui restera dans l’histoire.
Le docteur Hossam Abou Safiya, directeur de l'hôpital Kamal Adwan, seul, dans sa blouse, se dirige vers les chars de « l’armée » d’occupation israélienne.
L’image d’un génocide. pic.twitter.com/LLsN5zXa2J
— Thomas Portes (@Portes_Thomas) December 28, 2024
MedGlobal said Abu Safiya’s “arrest is not only unjust — it is a violation of international humanitarian law, which upholds the protection of medical personnel in conflict zones. MedGlobal urgently calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Abu [Safiya].”
MedGlobal has received confirmed reports that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, our lead physician in Gaza and Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, has been arrested.
Dr. Abu Safiya has dedicated his life to protecting the health and lives of children in Gaza, providing care under conditions… pic.twitter.com/rRWTO6WTks
— MedGlobal (@MedGlobalOrg) December 28, 2024
Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, said Abu Safiya is considered a human rights defender by Front Line Defenders, an Irish-based organisation that works to protect people who are “at risk for their peaceful and legitimate human rights work”.
Dr Hussem Abu Safiyeh was arrested by Israeli military soon after this photo was taken. His whereabouts are not known. He was the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza until it was forcibly evacuated by Israel. @FrontLineHRD considers him a human rights defender.… pic.twitter.com/kP7sfUefix
— Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) December 28, 2024
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also demanded the “immediate release” of the Kamal Adwan Hospital director, calling to stop attacks on hospitals.
Hospitals in #Gaza have once again become battlegrounds and the health system is under severe threat.
Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern #Gaza is out of service — following the raid, forced patient and staff evacuation and the detention of its director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya two…
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 30, 2024
UN’s Palestine expert Francesca Albanese said “all of us must do all we can to save” him.
For each Palestinian life that should and could have been saved in Gaza, we have been put to the test. And we have failed, over and over. We must not fail again.
All of us must do all we can to save Dr Abu Safiya.#FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya https://t.co/FM3kFohXvh pic.twitter.com/uzixrKGAqQ— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) December 29, 2024
This is Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, defiant in the face of Israeli tanks. Israel destroyed his hospital and cut off the oxygen to patients.
Free Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh.
End all arms sales to Israel. End the occupation. Free Palestine pic.twitter.com/XTjzQdAweX
— Claudia Webbe (@ClaudiaWebbe) December 28, 2024
The last photo of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, detained after refusing to abandon his colleagues and patients.
In just one image, we see both the power of Palestinian humanity and the moral weakness of all those complicit in genocide.
End all arms sales to Israel, now. pic.twitter.com/zxDqgUt1S9
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) December 29, 2024
