Israel faced mounting pressure on Saturday over the detention of a hospital director in the Gaza Strip during a raid on one of the last functioning medical facilities in the devastated northern part of the Palestinian enclave.
Israel has confirmed in recent days that it has detained Dr. Hassam Abu Safiyah, defending the assault that shut down Kamal Adwan Hospital, saying the prominent pediatrician was “involved in terrorist activities and a member of Hamas.” He said there was a suspicion that he had held a certain position. said it was based there along with another militant group.
But rights groups and U.N. officials have questioned those claims, which Israel has made without providing evidence, and urged U.S. allies to call on Abu Safiyah amid growing concerns about his safety. They want him to be released, or at least to reveal his whereabouts.
There are fears for the hospital director’s safety as Israel faces intense scrutiny over military attacks that the United Nations human rights office said this week had brought Gaza’s health system “on the brink of complete collapse.”
Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 170 people in the Gaza Strip over the past week, including several children, and also attacked Israeli-declared humanitarian zones, with humanitarian forces in the enclave grappling with the effects of winter under siege The crisis has become more serious, local officials said.
Rights groups sound the alarm
Independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said they were “gravely concerned” about the fate of Abu Safiyah, “yet another doctor harassed, kidnapped and arbitrarily detained” by Israeli forces. .
In a statement released on Thursday, UN special rapporteurs Dr. Tlalen Mofokeng and Francesca Albanese said that Ms Abu Safiyah’s son was killed in front of her eyes before being taken into custody and that she had recently been injured in the line of duty. He pointed out that he did.
Israeli human rights groups have petitioned the country’s highest court demanding information on Abu Safiyah’s whereabouts. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) said in a statement on Thursday that Abu Safiyah’s case “participates in a widespread pattern of private and unreliable information provided by the Israeli military and prison authorities regarding Palestinian detainees. It is part of the
Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard expressed extreme alarm at the latest information on Abu Safiyah’s whereabouts. She warned X on Thursday that he was “at great risk of torture and ill-treatment” and called on Israel to reveal his whereabouts.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a US-based civil rights group, called on the Biden administration on Friday to secure Abu Safiyah’s release.
The United States is in contact with the Israeli government and partners on the ground and gathering information about Abu Safiyah, Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dorothy Shea told the Security Council on Friday. He said it was “critically important for Israel to comply with international humanitarian law and take all possible measures to prevent harm to civilians” for both patients and medical professionals.
Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital late last month, detaining scores of people and forcing the closure of the medical facility. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Israeli troops entered the hospital and “forcibly” removed medical workers, patients and families as military vehicles surrounded the hospital.
A video taken outside the hospital and seen by NBC News showed Abu Safiyah wearing a white medical coat walking alone toward a military vehicle.
The Israel Defense Forces initially announced that Abu Safiyah had been taken into custody, confirming that he was being held as a “suspect” and being interrogated for “possible involvement in terrorist activities.”
Amid growing outcry, the IDF on Thursday said Abu Safiyah had been “involved in terrorist activities while hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital under his control.” He was arrested on suspicion of terrorism and holding a position in a Hamas terrorist organization.” ”
He announced that he is currently under investigation by the Israeli military. The Israeli Defense Forces have not been able to confirm where Abu Safiyah was being held after family members and fellow detainees expressed concerns in media interviews that Abu Safiyah may have been at the Sude Teiman military base in southern Israel. He did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment on whether or not he was there.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Mellon said Friday that the attack on Kamal Adwan was prompted by “irrefutable evidence” that the facility was being used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. He said the Israeli military had taken “extraordinary measures to protect civilian lives, while acting on reliable information.”
Mellon’s justification for the attack was laid out in a letter posted on X to the World Health Organization and UN human rights chief Volker Türk.
But Mr. Turk told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that Israel “has not substantiated many of these claims,” many of which “appear to be contradicted by publicly available information.” said.
“I call for an independent, thorough, and transparent investigation into all Israeli attacks on hospitals, medical infrastructure, and medical personnel, and into the alleged misuse of such facilities,” he told his 15 member organizations. spoke.
The protests over the attack are part of a larger pattern of concern over Israel’s treatment of Gaza’s health system, which has been ravaged by the ongoing conflict.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Friday that all three public hospitals operating in the northern Gaza Strip – Beit Hanun Hospital, Indonesian Hospital and Kamal Adwan Hospital – are currently closed.
Dr. Marwan al-Hams, head of the Gaza Ministry of Health’s field hospital, told NBC News on Friday that Israeli forces had “completely destroyed all services of the Indonesian hospital, including generators, electricity, oxygen stations, and fuel tanks.” Ta.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Nadav Shoshani said on the He denied reports that he had done so.
More than 1,057 Palestinian health and medical professionals have been killed in Gaza, many arbitrarily arrested, according to the United Nations.
Hospitals and medical workers are considered protected by international law, which prohibits them from becoming targets of war.
More than 45,500 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israeli forces launched an offensive in the enclave after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 terrorist attack, according to local officials, and Israeli authorities say about It said 1,200 people were killed and about 250 more were taken hostage, significantly escalating the decades-old conflict.
