Hero of Kamal Adwan Hospital: The ongoing struggle of Hussam Abu Safiya

Under the Gaza ceasefire agreement, Israel was forced to release dozens of doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other healthcare workers it had kidnapped during attacks on Gaza hospitals. However, more than 100 people, including Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital — who became a symbol of the fight to continue treating patients under siege and bombardment — remain in Israeli prisons.

Despite widespread calls for Abu Safiya’s release, he was not among the hundreds of Palestinian detainees who were freed.

The Associated Press reported that Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has been held in Israeli prisons without charge for approximately ten months.

Health Workers Watch, which documents arrests in Gaza, stated that 55 medical staff, including 31 doctors and nurses, were on the list of detainees released on Monday, October 13, though it could not immediately confirm that all had been freed.

The group noted that at least 115 medical personnel remain in captivity, and that the remains of four staff members who died in Israeli prisons are still held there, where human rights groups and witnesses have reported repeated abuse.

The Israeli two-year campaign against Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023, devastated Gaza’s healthcare system and forced most hospitals to close. Many facilities suffered serious damage, while staff struggled to treat bombing casualties amid severe equipment shortages.

Israeli forces attacked several Gaza hospitals during the war, abducting hundreds of staff members.

The Israeli army claimed that Abu Safiya was being interrogated on suspicion of collaborating with or working for Hamas. International staff and humanitarian groups who worked with him have denied these claims.

In November 2023, Israeli forces also kidnapped Mohammed Abu Salmiyeh, director of Al-Shifa Hospital, accusing him of being a Hamas officer, though he was released seven months later.

Abu Safiya, a pediatrician, managed Kamal Adwan Hospital during its 85-day siege by Israeli forces in attacks on the surrounding areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun.

On December 27, 2024, Israeli forces attacked the hospital. Images were released showing Abu Safiya in a white medical coat walking through the ruins toward an Israeli armored vehicle to discuss patient evacuations. Subsequently, he and dozens of others, including patients and staff, were abducted.

Saeed Salah, director of a hospital in Gaza City and a long-time colleague of Abu Safiya for 29 years, said:

“Abu Safiya stayed at the hospital until the very last moment. He did not leave because if he did, all medical services there would have stopped. He is truly a great man.”

During the siege, Abu Safiya repeatedly rejected military orders to close the hospital or evacuate it. He posted multiple videos on social media showing staff struggling to treat waves of injured Palestinians. As hospital supplies ran out, he called for international assistance and reported on Israeli attacks on hospital buildings that caused injuries, deaths, and damage to medical units.

In October 2024, a drone strike killed one of his sons, Ibrahim, at the hospital entrance. Abu Safiya later tearfully said in a video:

“I refused to leave the hospital and abandon my patients, so the Israeli army punished me by killing my son.”

The following month, drone shrapnel injured Abu Safiya while he was in his office.

He is currently held in Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank. The human rights group Physicians for Human Rights, which visited him in September, reported that he has not been presented to a judge or interrogated, and no reason for his detention has been given.

The group also reported that Abu Safiya stated that he and other detainees have not received sufficient food or medical care, and that he has lost about 25 kilograms since his detention. He reported that guards continuously beat detainees during cell inspections.