Israel faced increasing pressure Saturday over the arrest of the head of a Gaza hospital during a raid on one of the last functioning medical facilities in the battered north of the Palestinian enclave.
In recent days, Israel confirmed it is holding Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and defended its attack that closed Kamal Adwan Hospital, saying the prominent pediatrician was suspected of “engaging in terrorist activities and having a rank” in Hamas, which it said who had turned the site into a stronghold along with another militant group.
But human rights groups and United Nations officials have disputed those claims, which Israel made without providing evidence, urging the U.S. ally to release Abu Safiya or at least reveal his whereabouts as fears grow for his safety.
Concerns for the hospital director’s well-being come as Israel faces growing scrutiny over a military offensive that the UN Human Rights Office said this week had brought Gaza’s health system to the “brink of total collapse.”
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 170 people, including several children, in Gaza over the past week and hit a humanitarian zone declared by Israel, local officials said, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the enclave as it grapples with the effects of a cold winter. siege .
Human rights groups sound the alarm
Independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said they were “gravely concerned” about the fate of Abu Safiya, “yet another doctor harassed, kidnapped and arbitrarily detained” by Israeli forces.
In a statement released Thursday, U.N. special rapporteurs Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng and Francesca Albanese noted that Abu Safiya’s son was killed in front of him before being detained, and that he was recently injured while on duty.
An Israeli human rights group has filed a petition with the country’s highest court demanding to know Abu Safiya’s whereabouts. Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHRI) said in a statement on Thursday that Abu Safiya’s case “is part of a broader pattern of non-disclosure and unreliable information provided by the Israeli military and prison authorities about Palestinian detainees.” ”.
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard expressed extreme alarm at the latest information on Abu Safiya’s whereabouts. He warned X on Thursday that he was “at great risk of torture and ill-treatment,” and called on Israel to reveal his location.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a US-based civil rights organization, on Friday called on the Biden Administration to secure Abu Safiya’s release.
The United States is in contact with the Israeli government, as well as partners on the ground, and is gathering information on Abu Safiya, US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the Security Council on Friday. He said it was “vital that Israel comply with international humanitarian law and take all possible measures to prevent civilian harm” to both patients and medical professionals.
Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital late last month, detaining dozens of people and forcing the closure of the medical center. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces stormed inside and “forcibly” removed health workers, patients and family members, while military vehicles surrounded the hospital.
Video captured outside the hospital and verified by NBC News showed Abu Safiya, dressed in a white medical coat and walking alone toward a military vehicle.
The Israel Defense Forces initially confirmed that Abu Safiya had been detained and questioned, saying that he was being held as a “suspect” and questioned for his “possible involvement in terrorist activities.”
Amid growing protest, the IDF said Thursday that Abu Safiya was “detained on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities and having a rank in the Hamas terrorist organization, while hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital under his leadership. .”
He said he was currently being investigated by Israeli forces. The IDF did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News about where Abu Safiya was being held, after family members and fellow detainees raised concerns in media interviews that he was being held at the Sde Teiman military base in southern Iraq. Israel.
Israel’s UN ambassador, Daniel Meron, said Friday that the attack on Kamal Adwan was prompted by “irrefutable evidence” that the facility was being used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. He said Israeli forces had taken “extraordinary measures to protect civilian life while acting on credible intelligence.”
Meron’s justification for the raid was written in a letter published in X and addressed to the World Health Organization, as well as UN human rights official Volker Turk.
But Turk told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that Israel did not “substantiate many of these claims,” many of which, he said, “appear to be contradicted by publicly available information.”
“I am calling for independent, thorough and transparent investigations into all Israeli attacks on hospitals, health infrastructure and medical personnel, as well as the alleged misuse of such facilities,” he told the 15-member body.
The outcry over the attack is part of a broader pattern of concern over Israel’s treatment of Gaza’s health system, which has been ruined by the ongoing conflict.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Friday that the three public hospitals operating in the north of the Gaza Strip (Beit Hanoun Hospital, Indonesian Hospital and Kamal Adwan Hospital) are now out of service.
Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, director of field hospitals at the Gaza Health Ministry, told NBC News on Friday that the Israeli military had “completely destroyed all services at the Indonesian hospital, including generators, power, oxygen stations and fuel tanks.”
IDF spokesman Nadav Shoshani said in X that the IDF “did not attack the Indonesian hospital” or “damage any essential equipment,” denying reports that it had issued evacuation orders to the hospital.
More than 1,057 Palestinian health professionals and doctors have been killed so far in Gaza and many have been arbitrarily detained, according to the UN
Hospitals and medical workers are considered protected by international law, which states that they should never become targets of war.
More than 45,500 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to local officials, since Israeli forces launched their offensive in the enclave following the Hamas-led terrorist attack on October 7, in which Israeli officials say about 1,200 people were killed. and around 250 others were taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decades-long conflict.
