Israel faced mounting pressure Saturday over its detention of a Gaza hospital chief during a raid on one of the last functioning medical facilities in the battered north of the Palestinian enclave.
Israel has in recent days confirmed it is holding Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and defended its assault that shut down Kamal Adwan Hospital, saying that the prominent pediatrician was suspected of “involvement in terrorist activities, and for holding a rank” in Hamas, which it said had made the site a stronghold along with another militant group.
But rights groups and United Nations officials have questioned those claims, which Israel made without providing evidence, urging the U.S. ally to release Abu Safiya or at least disclose his whereabouts as fears grow for his safety.
Concerns for the hospital director’s wellbeing come as Israel faces growing scrutiny over a military offensive that the U.N. Human Rights Office said this week had pushed Gaza’s healthcare system to “the brink of total collapse.”
Israeli air strikes killed at least 170 people, including several children, in Gaza over the past week and hit an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone, local officials said, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the enclave as it grapples with the effects of a winter under siege.
Rights groups raise alarm
Independent experts appointed by the U.N Human Rights Council said they were “gravely concerned” over the fate of Abu Safiya, “yet another doctor to be 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 he was detained, and that he was recently injured while on duty.
An Israeli human rights group has filed a petition with the country’s top court demanding to know the whereabouts of Abu Safiya. Physicians for Human Rights — Israel (PHRI) said in a statement 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 regarding Palestinian detainees.”
Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard expressed extreme alarm over the latest information regarding the whereabouts of Abu Safiya. She warned on X on Thursday that he was “at great risk of torture and ill-treatment,” calling on Israel to reveal his location.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights organization based in the United States, called Friday on the Biden Administration to secure Abu Safiya’s release.
The U.S. is in contact with the Israeli government, as well as partners on the ground, and is gathering information about Abu Safiya, Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea told the Security Council on Friday. She said it was “vital for Israel to comply with international humanitarian law and to take every possible step to prevent civilian harm” to both patients and medical professionals.
Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital late last month, detaining scores of people and forcing the closure of the medical facility. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces stormed inside and “forcibly” removed health workers, patients and family members, as military vehicles surrounded the hospital.
Video captured outside the hospital and verified by NBC News showed Abu Safiya, wearing a white medical overcoat and walking alone toward a military vehicle.
The Israel Defense Forces initially confirmed that Abu Safiya had been detained and interrogated, saying that he was being held as a “suspect” and questioned over “potential involvement in terrorist activity.”
Amid growing outcry, the IDF said Thursday that Abu Safiya was “apprehended for suspected involvement in terrorist activities, and for holding a rank in the Hamas terror organization, while hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital under his management.”
It said he was currently being investigated by Israeli forces. The IDF did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News on where Abu Safiya was being held, after family members and fellow detainees raised concerns in media interviews that he was at the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel.
Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Daniel Meron, said Friday that the raid on Kamal Adwan was triggered 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 posted on X and addressed to the World Health Organization, as well as U.N. humans right official Volker Turk.
But Turk told the U.N. security council 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, healthcare infrastructure and medical personnel, as well as the alleged misuse of such facilities,” he told the 15-member body.
The outcry over the raid is part of a larger pattern of concern over Israel’s treatment of Gaza’s healthcare system, which has been laid to ruin by the ongoing conflict.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Friday that the three public hospitals operating in the northern Gaza Strip — Beit Hanoun Hospital, Indonesian Hospital and Kamal Adwan Hospital — are now all out of service.
Dr Marwan Al-Hams, Director of Field Hospitals at Gaza’s Ministry of Health, told NBC News on Friday that the Israeli military had “completely destroyed all services of the Indonesian hospital, including generators, power, oxygen stations, and fuel tanks.”
IDF spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said on X that the IDF “did not strike 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 and medical professionals have been killed so far in Gaza and many have been arbitrarily arrested, according to the U.N.
Hospitals and medical workers are considered protected under international law, which states that they must never become targets in warfare.
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 after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attack, in which Israeli officials say some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
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