Above photo: AFP.
Doctor Hussam Abu Safia was abducted during an Israeli raid.
The raid ended with north Gaza’s last functioning hospital set on fire.
Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital Dr Hussam Abu Safia has been taken to Israel’s notorious torture camp, Sde Teiman, following his abduction by Israeli forces at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza, CNN reported on 30 December.
Dr Abu Safia has not been seen publicly since his abduction from the hospital during an Israeli raid on 27 December that caused the hospital to cease functioning.
Medical staff told CNN that Israeli forces started a fire in the hospital and that they were all rounded up outside and ordered to remove their clothes over the course of several hours before being forced to leave.
Israeli media published footage of Dr Abu Safia walking alone through the rubble surrounding the hospital toward an Israeli tank before his abduction.
Footage has emerged showing Dr Hussam Abu Safiya’s arrest by Israeli forces at northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital.
On Friday, Israeli forces stormed the hospital, forcibly evacuating patients and medical staff and arresting over 240 people, including the hospital’s director,… pic.twitter.com/fd9egquEkR
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) December 29, 2024
Recently released former detainees from Sde Teiman have told CNN that Dr Abu Safia is in the notorious detention center.
Ahmad al-Sayyed Saleem, 18, said a doctor from the Abu Safia family was brought into the prison on Saturday.
Saleem was detained 42 days ago at an Israeli checkpoint when he was forced to leave northern Gaza.
Another former prisoner, Yahya Zaqout, said he was in a cell next to the doctor and heard guards calling his name.
“I heard them calling his name between the names they call every morning and night, and we had men that were brought to our cell and told us they were detained along with Dr Hussam,” he said.
“They are all still in detention. They treated them really badly especially the doctors,” said Alaa Abu Banat, who was detained at Sde Teiman 43 days ago.
Dr Abu Safia’s family told CNN: “Sde Teiman is known for brutality and torture, we can’t imagine what our father is going through in that place and if he is well or not, warm or cold … hungry or in pain.”
Our hero Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya in Gaza has been arrested by Israeli forces after destroying his hospital. Everyone should know. So please share and don’t hold back. pic.twitter.com/JUGAlm7W1D
— Bilal Abdul Kareem (@BilalKareem) December 29, 2024
Israeli soldiers working as guards in the facility have regularly tortured Palestinian detainees through the use of rape, beatings, electrocution, and forced feeding since the start of the war on Gaza in October last year.
An Israeli doctor who worked at the camp reported that doctors there are “routinely” forced to amputate prisoners’ limbs as a result of prolonged handcuffing by the guards.
“The situation there is more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo,” Khaled Mahajneh, a lawyer who visited Sde Teiman, told +972 Magazine.
WAFA news agency reported on Monday that Israeli army forces arrested a number of patients on Sunday night while they were being transferred from the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Medical sources stated that “Israeli army forces arrested four patients out of 10, while they were being transferred from the Indonesian Hospital to Al-Shifa Hospital.”
Israel’s war on Gaza is approaching its 15th month. Israeli forces have killed over 45,500 Palestinians since October last year in an effort to ethnically cleanse the strip and prepare it for Jewish settlement.
We, the family of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, urgently appeal to the international community to act immediately for his release. Detained by Israeli occupation forces while performing his humanitarian duty, he now suffers severe mistreatment in Sde… pic.twitter.com/AbGcz5MngI
— Osama Abu Rabee أسامة أبوربيع (@dn_osama_rabee) December 30, 2024