Calls for the release of Gaza hospital director detained by Israel | Gaza News

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

Fears are growing for the safety of Abu Sufiya, whose whereabouts remain unknown since he was detained from the last barely functional medical facility in northern Gaza, which was crushed by relentless Israeli bombardment during the weeks-long military siege of the area.

MedGlobal, a humanitarian NGO providing health care in disaster-hit areas, demanded the immediate release of Abu Safia, while the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “appalled” by the attack on the hospital.

The latest picture of Abu Safia, widely shared on social media, shows him walking towards an Israeli tank near Kamal Adwan Hospital, which were burned by Israeli forces during a violent raid on Friday.

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

Since October 6, Israeli operations in Gaza have focused on the north, where the military says its ground and air offensive is aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping.

Location unknown

Zaher Sahloul, 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 supports the protection of medical personnel in conflict zones. MedGlobal urgently calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Abu [Safia].”

Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general, said Front Line Defenders, an Ireland-based organization that works to protect people “at risk for their peaceful and legitimate human rights work,” considers Abu Safia a human rights defender.

The raid was also the last in the hospital during warin which Israel targeted health facilities.

“The systematic breakdown of the health system and the siege of northern Gaza, which has lasted for more than 80 days, puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians who remain in the area at risk,” the UN health agency announced.

dr. Ali Elaydi, an orthopedic surgeon originally from Gaza, says that the Israeli attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital and the arrest of Dr. The Abu Safis aim to empty the north of the enclave of its inhabitants.

“It essentially deprives the entire population of northern Gaza of any viable medical care. I believe this is really intentional to drive people out of northern Gaza,” Elaydi told Al Jazeera from the American city of Dallas.

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

“It’s a warning to every other doctor not to speak for their patients.”

On Friday, Hamas rejected Israel’s claim that its fighters had been operating from the hospital all along 15-month war in Gazasaying that no combatant was in the hospital.

The WHO said Kamal Adwan Hospital’s remaining 15 critical patients, 50 caregivers and 20 health workers were transferred Friday to a nearby Indonesian hospital, which it described as “destroyed and dysfunctional.”

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

The killing of Adnan al-Bursh

Abu Safia, who is a pediatrician by training, refused several Israeli orders to evacuate Kamal Adwan Hospital.

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

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

Abu Safia was wounded by shrapnel in another Israeli attack on the hospital on November 23, but continued his work, informing the world about the hospital’s happenings.

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

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