Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the 51-year-old pediatrician and director of the Kamal-Adwan hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip, is a model of patience and rigor. Despite incessant bombardment by the Israeli army, he has resolutely managed what is now the last remaining hospital in the region, providing essential care to children and intensive care patients.

Since early December 2024, as Israel stepped up its military operations in the region, Abu Safiya has consistently pleaded for the protection of his facility and the intervention of the international community. These appeals have gone unanswered. On December 27, 2024, Israeli forces launched a major operation against the hospital, rendering it unusable. During this operation, Abu Safiya and several members of the medical staff were arrested. Munir Al-Bursh, director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, reported that the doctor had been severely beaten by Israeli forces, forced to strip and wear prison clothes.

The Israeli army said it had carried out the operation in the hospital area to arrest "at least 240 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists," claiming that the facility was being used as a terrorist base. Initially, responding to a CNN journalist, it acknowledged the detention of Abu Safiya, whom it accused of being a terrorist operator for Hamas, the group responsible for the murderous attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

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