9 January 2025
The UK Government must take urgent action to protect healthcare workers and patients and ensure the immediate release of all arbitrarily detained medical staff, as the illegal detention of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, continued into its second week with no news of his whereabouts or wellbeing.
The Israeli military has escalated their systematic targeting of Palestinian healthcare workers, with hundreds currently arbitrarily detained under inhuman conditions. These detentions are part of Israel’s systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system, which is making Palestinian survival impossible.
On 27 December 2024, following repeated attacks over 12 weeks, Israeli forces invaded Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza, and burnt and severely damaged essential buildings. This forced the hospital out of service. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the hospital’s director, was detained along with dozens of other medical staff.
An estimated 350 people, including patients, were forced to leave the hospital. Some patients arrived at the Indonesian Hospital, which was not able to provide any care after being forced out of service by the Israeli military on 24 December. The last remaining partially operational hospital in the North Gaza Governorate, al-Awda Hospital, is on the brink of collapse, struggling to function amid relentless attacks and resource shortages.
Fikr Shalltoot, MAP’s Gaza Director, said: “We at MAP are extremely concerned for the life and safety of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and all Palestinian healthcare workers detained by Israeli forces. These detentions, alongside systematic assaults on hospitals in North Gaza, have left tens of thousands of people without access to healthcare and forced them to flee southwards.
“Dr. Abu Safiya spent weeks and months sending distress calls about Israeli military attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital, and the dangers posed to his colleagues and patients. His warnings were met with deafening silence from the international community. It is long overdue for the UK and other nations to act decisively to protect Palestinians from ethnic cleansing, ensure the safety of healthcare workers, and hold Israel accountable.”
Since his detention, the whereabouts of Dr. Abu Safiya remain unknown and there are fears for his safety while in Israeli detention. This follows a documented pattern of Israeli forces targeting Palestinian healthcare workers, with reports of torture and inhuman treatment.
At least three physicians have died in Israeli custody as of 24 September 2024, while at least 330 health workers have been detained by Israeli authorities, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. This includes orthopedic surgeon, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh, who was tortured and died during his time detained in an Israeli prison in May 2024. 1,057 Palestinian health and medical professionals have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.
Responding to an Urgent Question on the detention of Dr. Abu Safiya and North Gaza in the House of Commons on 7 January 2024, Minister for the Middle East, Hamish Falconer, called for Israel to “urgently clarify the reasons for his detention.”
Rohan Talbot, MAP’s Director of Advocacy and Campaigns said: “While we welcome the Minister’s decision to raise Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s case with Israel, it is wholly insufficient to merely seek clarity on the reasons for his detention without demanding his release, and that of all health workers arbitrarily detained by Israel.
As the UN Commission of Inquiry recently found, Israel has deliberately killed, detained, and tortured medical personnel in Gaza as part of a concerted policy to destroy the health system. These are acts that it found constitute war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination.
“The UK Government’s meager diplomatic response is shameful and a dereliction of its moral and legal responsibilities. It must take urgent, decisive action to hold those responsible for attacks on Palestinian healthcare to account.”
Photo: Medic Abed Al Aziz Bardini mourns next to the body of his mother in Deir al-Balah in Gaza. (Credit: AP Photo / Abed Al Kareem Hana).
