Calls for the release of Gaza hospital director detained by Israel

Calls have been made for the release of Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was detained on Saturday with dozens of others by the Israeli military during a raid on the facility in northern Gaza.

Fears are growing over the safety of Abu Sufia, whose whereabouts remain unknown since he was detained from the last barely functioning medical facility in northern Gaza, which has been pulverised by relentless Israeli bombings during a weeks-long military siege of the area.

MedGlobal, a humanitarian NGO providing healthcare in disaster areas, has demanded Abu Safia’s immediate release, while the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “appalled” by the raid on the hospital.

The last picture of Abu Safia, widely shared on social media, showed him walking towards an Israeli tank near the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which was burned down by the Israeli forces during the violent raid on Friday.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that Abu Safia was held for questioning, on suspicion of “being a Hamas terrorist operative”. It arrested more than 240 people from the hospital premises.

Since October 6, Israel’s operations in Gaza have focused on the north, where the military says its land and air offensive aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

Location unknown

Zaher Sahloul, the president of MedGlobal, said in a statement that Abu Safia’s arrest was “unjust and a violation of international humanitarian law”.

“His 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 [Safia].”

Agnes Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, said Abu Safia 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”.

The raid was also the latest on a hospital during the war, in which Israel targeted healthcare complexes.

“The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days on north Gaza puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk,” the UN health agency said in a statement.

Dr Ali Elaydi, an orthopaedic surgeon originally from Gaza, says Israel’s raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital and the arrest of Dr Abu Safia are aimed at emptying the north of the enclave of its residents.

“It essentially robs the entire population of northern Gaza of any sustainable medical care. I believe this is truly intentional to force the people out of northern Gaza,” Elaydi told Al Jazeera from the US city of Dallas.

“It is systematic. [The Israelis] have decided that without medical care, they [the Palestinians in north Gaza] would have to evacuate.”

“It is a warning to every other physician to not speak out for their patients.”

On Friday, Hamas dismissed Israel’s assertion that its fighters had operated from the hospital throughout the 15-month Gaza war, saying no fighters had been in the hospital.

WHO said the Kamal Adwan Hospital’s remaining 15 critical patients, 50 caregivers and 20 health workers were transferred on Friday to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, which it described as “destroyed and non-functional”.

It said WHO would undertake an urgent mission to the Indonesian Hospital on Sunday, partly to move the critical patients to Gaza City.

Killing of Adnan al-Bursh

Abu Safia, who is a paediatrician by training, has refused multiple Israeli orders to evacuate Kamal Adwan Hospital.

He was briefly arrested and released when Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan in late October.

During that same operation, Israeli forces killed Abu Safia’s son, Ibrahim, in a drone attack on the gate of the hospital.

Abu Safia was wounded by shrapnel from another Israeli attack on the hospital on November 23, but he continued his work, keeping the world informed on the developments in the hospital.

This is not the first time the Israeli forces have attacked a hospital and medical professionals. Adnan al-Bursh, a prominent Palestinian orthopaedic surgeon and the head of orthopaedics at al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest medical facility before it was destroyed, was killed reportedly due to torture in an Israeli prison.

He was working at the al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza in December when he and other medics were arrested by the Israeli army.

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