Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya in Critical Condition After Over 190 Days in Israeli Detention: Lawyer
Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- The health of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has significantly deteriorated after more than 190 days in Israeli detention following his abduction by Israeli forces, his lawyer said.
According to his lawyer, Abu Safiya has lost more than 40kg (88 pounds) since his arrest, dropping from 100kg (220 pounds) to about 60kg (132 pounds).
He was reportedly severely beaten on June 24 at Ofer Prison, sustaining injuries to his ribs, face and back. Despite requesting medical care and cardiology tests for an irregular heartbeat, his requests were denied.
He remains in solitary confinement under harsh conditions, deprived of sunlight, and still wearing winter clothes in the summer heat. His lawyer warned that Abu Safiya and many other Palestinian detainees are in grave condition.
Israeli forces kidnapped Dr. Abu Safiya in December 2024 after storming Kamal Adwan Hospital. Soldiers forced him out at gunpoint, destroying the hospital and putting it out of service. Surrounded by bomb-struck buildings, Abu Safiya walked down the middle of a road strewn with debris, his white medical coat standing out against the rubble as he made his way toward Israeli tanks.
The footage is the last time Abu Safiya was seen before he was taken into custody by Israeli forces.
Abu Safiya was the lead physician in Gaza for MedGlobal, a Chicago-based nonprofit that has partnered with local health care workers since 2018 and arranges volunteer medical missions to the enclave.
In an interview with NBC News last month, the organization’s co-founder, Dr. John Kahler, said he was “very afraid” that Abu Safiya won’t “make it out alive” from detention. He added that the physician was “a friend of mine, a hero, mentor,” who, among other things, had helped to establish nutrition stabilization centers in the Gaza Strip.
On visits to Gaza, Kahler said, he had never seen any indication that Abu Safiya was linked with Hamas or any suggestion that it was operating inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
The organization, along with 24 other NGOs, called for an end to Israel’s arbitrary detention of healthcare workers in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, with at least 185 Palestinian health workers currently being held in Israeli prisons.
Among them are doctors, nurses, and other health professionals working with humanitarian organizations, including staff of MedGlobal and Children Not Numbers, the groups said, adding “the conditions of many of those still detained remain unknown. Many of those released have reported severe abuse, while some have died in custody.”
“Israeli authorities have repeatedly and blatantly violated international humanitarian law in repeated detentions of and attacks on health care workers,” the NGOs letter said.
Israel has killed 1,588 health workers in Gaza since October 7, 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry announced Sunday.
Their call for the “immediate, unconditional release” of detained health workers came as concern is growing for the health of Abu Safiya, who has been detained for more than six months without charge, according to his colleagues, family and legal team.
Abu Safiya’s son Elias Abu Safiya told NBC News that he was concerned for his father’s physical and mental health, which he said legal advocates had told him were in a “difficult” state, although he added they had not been able to visit him for some time.
The Israeli military claimed in January that Abu Safiya had been involved “in terrorist activities” and held “a rank” in Hamas that it said had made the Kamal Adwan Hospital a stronghold during the war.
In March, an Israeli court extended the detention of Abu Safiya for six months. The ruling classified him as an “unlawful combatant”, a term that Israel has been extensively using to describe abductees from Gaza. Israel has used this law since 2002 to imprison Palestinians without charges or fair trials. Since 2005, it has specifically targeted Gaza’s residents, denying them legal rights.
But according to the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, no formal charges had been made against the hospital director as of Thursday. A spokesperson for the Al Mezan Center said that Abu Safiya was still being detained in Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank, where he faced dire conditions, inadequate food and overcrowded cells.
Calling the accusations “ridiculous,” Kahler said his colleague was a “heroic physician” whose “moral compass is directly pointing due North.”
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