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Friday 21 Feb 2025
LOCAL EDITION
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LOCAL EDITION
On November 24, 2024, Abu Safiya was wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting the hospital, yet he refused to leave and continued treating the wounded and sick. (Photo/Israeli media)
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern besieged Gaza, appeared with both his hands and feet shackled for the first time since his abduction by Israeli forces last December.
On Wednesday evening, Israeli media broadcast a video showing Abu Safiya visibly exhausted and weakened as prison guards escorted him.
Abu Safiya is regarded as one of the most prominent doctors who continued working under Israeli bombardment to save the wounded Palestinians in northern Gaza.
Israeli journalist Yossi Eli, a correspondent for Israel's Channel 13, posted a video of Abu Safiya from Ofer Prison, located in Beitunia, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Eli denied claims that Abu Safiya had been tortured, stating: "We met him at Ofer Prison, and he is in excellent condition."
According to the Israeli journalist, Abu Safiya said there were Israeli prisoners in his hospital, and "he was taking care of them."
In the video, Abu Safiya is seen shackled and escorted by prison guards.
His family rejected the use of the video by any Israeli outlet without addressing the torture he went through.
"We, the family of Dr. Husam Abu Safiya, reject any media outlet publishing the video without addressing the psychological terrorism involved and exposing the manipulation of his statements," his family said on X.
"The sight of our father shackled and unable to move should prompt immediate and continuous action to ensure his immediate release."
On December 28, 2024, the Gaza Health Ministry announced that the Israeli army had arrested Abu Safiya in northern Gaza.
A day before his arrest, Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, set it on fire, rendered it inoperable, and arrested over 350 people inside, including Abu Safiya, whose image in a white medical coat amid the destruction sparked Arab and international outrage.
Among ruins, military vehicles
In late December, Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, arrested Abu Safiya at gunpoint, and destroyed the hospital, rendering it non-functional.
His arrest sparked widespread condemnation, especially after an image circulated of him walking alone amid the ruins, dressed in his medical coat, surrounded by Israeli military vehicles — a scene that became an icon of Palestinian resilience.
According to his family, Abu Safiya was subjected to severe torture and starvation inside Israeli prisons, a claim confirmed by a lawyer who recently visited him.
A statement by the Palestinian Al Mezan Center for Human Rights said on Friday that Yaron Finkelman, the head of the Israeli army's Southern Command, issued an order on February 12 to detain Abu Safiya, 52, under the "unlawful combatant law" instead of conducting a "standard legal trial."
The NGO said its lawyer visited Abu Safiya at Ofer Prison on February 11 and documented evidence that he had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
As the Israeli genocide in Gaza escalated, Abu Safiya paid a heavy personal price — his son, Ibrahim, was killed during the Israeli military's attack on the hospital on October 26, 2024.
On November 24, 2024, Abu Safiya was wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting the hospital, yet he refused to leave and continued treating the wounded and sick.
Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023, the Israeli military has systematically targeted Gaza's health care system — bombing and besieging hospitals, ordering workers and patients to flee, and blocking medical supplies, particularly in northern Gaza.
A ceasefire and prisoner swap agreement in Gaza took effect on January 19, halting Israel's genocidal war that has reportedly killed nearly 48,300 Palestinians and reduced most of the enclave to ruins while causing a massive shortage in basic necessities, including food, water, medicine and electricity.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
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Source: TRT
