Victims are handled contained in the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia within the northern Gaza Strip, following Israeli strikes across the medical advanced on December 6, 2024, because the struggle between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group continues. (Photograph by AFP)
PALESTINIAN Territories – Israel’s raid on a significant Gaza hospital and the arrest of its director over alleged hyperlinks to Hamas have drawn world consideration to the war-ravaged territory’s crumbling healthcare system.
For weeks, as preventing escalated across the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia space, its head Hossam Abu Safiyeh made determined appeals to the worldwide group to intervene and cease the violence “earlier than it’s too late”.
Within the early hours of Friday, the Israeli army launched a significant raid on the hospital, describing it as “one of many largest operations” it had performed for the reason that struggle in Gaza broke out in October final 12 months.
The raid ended a day later, with the army asserting that it killed greater than 20 militants and arrested over 240, together with Abu Safiyeh on suspicion of “being a Hamas operative”.
Since then, the whereabouts of the 51-year-old pediatrician have been unknown.
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The World Well being Group (WHO) has mentioned Kamal Adwan hospital has been out of service ever since, an enormous blow to the healthcare system in northern Gaza, the place tens of hundreds stay below ongoing Israeli bombardment.
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His household believes he’s being detained on the Sde Teiman army base within the Negev desert, close to Gaza.
‘Lethal assaults’
“This detention centre is infamous for the mistreatment of prisoners,” his son, Idris Abu Safiyeh, mentioned in a video message on Monday night.
“We’ve got acquired testimonies from launched detainees who reported that he was subjected to humiliation and abuse,” he mentioned. “He was reportedly compelled to strip”.
Regardless of repeated makes an attempt by AFP, the Israeli army has declined to specify Abu Safiyeh’s location. It has additionally not responded to allegations of his abuse.
READ: Palestinians say Israeli strikes kill 45 in Gaza
A number of different medical employees of Kamal Adwan Hospital have been detained within the raid as nicely.
“There isn’t a justification for these arrests aside from a want to destroy the healthcare system,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil protection company, instructed AFP. He described the scenario as “catastrophic and tragic.”
On Tuesday, a United Nations report revealed that Israeli strikes on and close to hospitals in Gaza have led to the close to whole collapse of the healthcare system within the Palestinian territory of two.4 million folks.
“Israel’s sample of lethal assaults on and close to hospitals in Gaza, and related fight, pushed the healthcare system to the brink of whole collapse, with catastrophic impact on Palestinians’ entry to well being and medical care,” the UN human rights workplace mentioned in a press release.
‘Hero in a white gown’
Israeli officers have repeatedly accused Hamas of utilizing the territory’s hospitals as command and management facilities for launching assaults towards Israeli forces.
Abu Safiyeh’s household has urged the worldwide group to stress Israel for his immediate launch — and their message has resonated.
The WHO led by its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has known as for the “quick launch” of the hospital director.
Rights group Amnesty Worldwide has echoed the decision, saying Abu Safiyeh had been the “voice of Gaza’s decimated well being sector”.
Healthcare professionals the world over have additionally urged for his launch, rallying on social media below the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya.
He was praised as a “hero in a white gown” in a number of social media posts for persevering with his work amid an intense Israeli army marketing campaign in northern Gaza.
Since October 6, Israeli forces have intensified their land and sea assault on northern Gaza, saying it was geared toward stopping Hamas from regrouping there.
In response to the US-based NGO MedGlobal, which employs him, Abu Safiyeh misplaced a teenage son in an Israeli air strike in late October, whereas he himself was injured within the leg days later.
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From a hospital mattress, he, nevertheless, declared in a video that the damage wouldn’t deter him from fulfilling his mission, “no matter the associated fee”.
