Head of one of the last partially functioning hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip arrested as Israeli military raids the facility and throws out dozens of doctors and patients.
Concerns are growing for the safety of the director of one of the last partially functioning hospitals in northern Gaza after the Israeli military arrested him.
Hussam Abu Safia, 51, was arrested by Israeli forces during their raid Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya on Friday. It is not known where he was taken.
This is what the World Health Organization said Lost contact with Abu Safia after the raid in which the Israeli military also removed dozens of medical staff and patients.
The director general of the Gaza Health Ministry, Munir al-Barsh, said Abu Safia was brutally beaten with batons and sticks by Israeli forces, who forced him to undress and put on prisoners’ clothes.
It was the second time in as many months that Abu Safia was arrested by Israeli forces during their operation Genocide in Gaza.
Here’s what you need to know about him:
Abu Safia, a pediatrician by training, is a prominent figure in Gaza’s health system. He holds a master’s degree and a Palestinian residency in pediatrics and neonatology.
Abu Safia, also known by his nickname Abu Elias, was born on November 21, 1973 in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. His family was expelled from the Palestinian town of Hamama in Ashkelon District in 1948.
Abu Safia refused multiple Israeli orders to leave Kamal Adwan Hospital after the Israeli military imposed a devastating blockade on the northern Gaza Strip on October 5. During the siege, Israel cut off supplies of food and water to Palestinians in the area and launched airstrikes. They carried out bombing raids, killing hundreds of civilians.
The siege also had a devastating impact on the region’s hospitals. Abu Safia was briefly arrested and then released when Israeli forces stormed the facility in late October and arrested 44 of its staff, leaving him and a handful of medical staff to treat dozens of wounded people.
During the same operation, Israeli forces killed Abu Safia’s son Ibrahim through a drone strike at the hospital gate. The doctor led the funeral prayer for his son in the hospital’s courtyard and accused the Israeli military of killing his son to punish him for refusing to leave the hospital.
Despite the siege, the medical team, which included some doctors such as Abu Safia and a small group of nurses, remained in the hospital, refusing repeated orders from the Israeli military to leave.
Through his stay in the hospital, Abu Safia had kept the world informed of Israel’s almost daily attacks, issuing video statements and pleading for international intervention to stop the attacks.
He was injured by shrapnel while leaving the operating room in an Israeli drone strike on the hospital on November 23. He suffered six shrapnel wounds to his thigh, which caused ruptures in his veins and arteries. But he pleaded to continue his work.
“That won’t stop us,” he said. “I was injured in my workplace and that is an honor. My blood is no more valuable than that of my colleagues or the people we serve. I will return to my patients once I have recovered.”
