Gaza Hospital Chief Held by Israel Becomes Face of Crumbling Healthcare

Hossam Abu Safiyeh (C), director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man, injured in an Israeli strike on Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 21, 2024. (AFP)
Hossam Abu Safiyeh (C), director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man, injured in an Israeli strike on Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 21, 2024. (AFP)
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Gaza Hospital Chief Held by Israel Becomes Face of Crumbling Healthcare

Hossam Abu Safiyeh (C), director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man, injured in an Israeli strike on Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 21, 2024. (AFP)
Hossam Abu Safiyeh (C), director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man, injured in an Israeli strike on Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 21, 2024. (AFP)

Israel's raid on a major Gaza hospital and the arrest of its director over alleged links to Hamas have drawn global attention to the war-ravaged territory's crumbling healthcare system.

For weeks, as fighting escalated around the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza's Beit Lahia area, its head Hossam Abu Safiyeh made desperate appeals to the international community to intervene and stop the violence "before it is too late".

In the early hours of Friday, the Israeli military launched a major raid on the hospital, describing it as "one of the largest operations" it had conducted since the war in Gaza broke out in October last year.

The raid ended a day later, with the military announcing that it killed more than 20 fighters and arrested over 240, including Abu Safiyeh on suspicion of "being a Hamas operative".

Since then, the whereabouts of the 51-year-old pediatrician have been unknown.

The World Health Organization has said Kamal Adwan Hospital has been out of service ever since, a massive blow to the healthcare system in northern Gaza, where tens of thousands live under ongoing Israeli bombardment.

His family believes he is being detained at the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev desert, near Gaza.

- 'Deadly attacks' -

"This detention center is notorious for the mistreatment of prisoners," his son, Idris Abu Safiyeh, said in a video message on Monday evening.

"We have received testimonies from released detainees who reported that he was subjected to humiliation and abuse," he said. "He was reportedly forced to strip".

Despite repeated attempts by AFP, the Israeli military has declined to specify Abu Safiyeh's location. It has also not responded to allegations of his abuse.

Several other medical staff of Kamal Adwan Hospital were detained in the raid as well.

"There is no justification for these arrests other than a desire to destroy the healthcare system," Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defense agency, told AFP. He described the situation as "catastrophic and tragic."

On Tuesday, a United Nations report revealed that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in Gaza have led to the near total collapse of the healthcare system in the Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people.

"Israel's pattern of deadly attacks on and near hospitals in Gaza, and associated combat, pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse, with catastrophic effect on Palestinians' access to health and medical care," the UN human rights office said in a statement.

- 'Hero in a white robe' -

Israeli officials have repeatedly accused Hamas of using the territory's hospitals as command and control centers for launching attacks against Israeli forces.

Abu Safiyeh's family has urged the international community to pressure Israel for his prompt release -- and their message has resonated.

The World Health Organization led by its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has called for the "immediate release" of the hospital director.

Rights group Amnesty International has echoed the call, saying Abu Safiyeh had been the "voice of Gaza's decimated health sector".

Healthcare professionals across the world have also urged for his release, rallying on social media under the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya.

He was praised as a "hero in a white robe" in several social media posts for continuing his work amid an intense Israeli military campaign in northern Gaza.

Since October 6, Israeli forces have intensified their land and sea assault on northern Gaza, saying it was aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping there.

According to the US-based NGO MedGlobal, which employs him, Abu Safiyeh lost a teenage son in an Israeli air strike in late October, while he himself was injured in the leg days later.

From a hospital bed, he, however, declared in a video that the injury would not deter him from fulfilling his mission, "whatever the cost".



Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah Was Killed Last Year inside the War Operations Room, Aide Says

People look through the rubble of buildings which were leveled on September 27 by Israeli strikes that targeted and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on September 29, 2024. (AFP)
People look through the rubble of buildings which were leveled on September 27 by Israeli strikes that targeted and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on September 29, 2024. (AFP)
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Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah Was Killed Last Year inside the War Operations Room, Aide Says

People look through the rubble of buildings which were leveled on September 27 by Israeli strikes that targeted and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on September 29, 2024. (AFP)
People look through the rubble of buildings which were leveled on September 27 by Israeli strikes that targeted and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on September 29, 2024. (AFP)

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike last year while inside the group's war operations room, according to new details Sunday disclosed by a senior Hezbollah official.

A series of Israeli airstrikes flattened several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sept. 27, 2023, killing Nasrallah. The Lebanese Health Ministry said six people died. According to news reports, Nasrallah and other senior officials were meeting underground.

The assassination of Nasrallah, who had led Hezbollah for 32 years, turned months of low-level strikes between Israel and the fighters into all-out war that battered much of southern and eastern Lebanon for two months until a US-brokered ceasefire took effect Nov. 27.

Nasrallah “used to lead the battle and war from this location,” top Hezbollah security official Wafiq Safa told a news conference Sunday near the site where Nasrallah was killed. He said Nasrallah died in the war operations room. He did not offer other details.

Lebanese media had reported that Safa was a target of Israeli airstrikes in central Beirut before the ceasefire but appeared unscathed.

During the first phase of the ceasefire, Hezbollah is supposed to move its fighters, weapons and infrastructure away from southern Lebanon north of the Litani River, while Israeli troops that invaded southern Lebanon need to withdraw all within 60 days. Lebanese army soldiers are to deploy in large numbers and alongside United Nations peacekeepers be the sole armed presence in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon and Hezbollah have been critical of ongoing Israeli strikes and overflights across the country and for only withdrawing from two of dozens of Lebanese villages it controls. Israel says that the Lebanese military has not done its share in dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.

Hezbollah’s current leader Naim Qassem in a televised address Saturday warned that its fighters could strike Israel if its troops don’t leave the south by the end of the month.

Safa said that Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who negotiated the ceasefire deal with Washington, told Hezbollah that the government will meet with US envoy Amos Hochstein soon. “And in light of what happens, then there will be a position,” said Safa.

Hochstein had led the shuttle diplomacy efforts to reach the fragile truce.