The fate of Doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, a 51-year-old pediatrician and director of Kamal-Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, is still uncertain. Many international organizations are calling for his release. On Saturday, the WHO director said he still had no news from him. According to the NGO Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, the Israeli army, which has not disclosed the place of detention, is currently refusing to allow him to meet a lawyer.
As a reminder, on December 27, Israeli forces launched a major operation against this hospital, the last one still functional in this region, rendering it unusable. During this intervention, Hussam Abu Safiya and several members of the medical staff were arrested. The director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that the doctor was violently beaten by Israeli soldiers, forced to strip and wear detainee clothing.
Initially, the Israeli army recognized the detention of Doctor Abu Safiya, whom it accused of being “a Hamas terrorist operator”. She later told Physicians for Human Rights that she had no record of her detention. Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said the doctor should now be considered “a victim of enforced disappearance” and that, as such, “he runs[ai]t a high risk of torture and ill-treatment.”
Citing three released Palestinian detainees, CNN claimed that Dr. Abu Safiya was currently detained at the Sde Teiman military camp in the Negev desert in southern Israel. One of these witnesses, Ala Abu Banat, said: “ [Les Palestiniens arrêtés lors de l’opération contre Kamal-Adwan] are still detained. They were badly mistreated, especially the doctors. »
