Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Northern Gaza, a Palestinian paediatrician and neonatologist, known for his unwavering courage and resilience during the ongoing military operation by the Israeli Army, was born on 21 November 1973 at Jabalia Refugee Camp in Gaza, his family having been kicked out from Hamama during the 1948 Nakba.
With each passing month, the toll deepened. His son was killed, his hospital repeatedly struck, and his life threatened. Still, he remained at Kamal Adwan.
Israelis kidnapped Dr Abu Safiya in Dec 2024 for refusing to leave his patients in Gaza: note: medics are protected by the Geneva Convention.
Under bombardment, Dr. Abu Safiya stayed beside his patients and staff, maintaining operations with dwindling oxygen, power, and medicine a decision that saved the lives of premature infants who would not have survived evacuation.
On 27 December 2024, israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital stormed the hospital, detaining 240 staff and patients, stripping them, and rendering the facility inoperable. Dr. Abu Safiya, who refused to abandon his post, was beaten and taken into custody under Israel’s “Unlawful Combatant Law,” with no charges or release date.
The 52-year-old pediatrician remains in administrative detention without charges or trial. A case that has come to symbolize the systematic targeting of Palestinian health workers amid Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza. Colleagues describe him stepping up as an anesthesiologist during sieges, even as his family sheltered there and his son Ibrahim was killed in an October strike. A few weeks before his detention, he said “I will stay inside my hospital until the last moment.”
Lawyers report his health has deteriorated severely in Ofer Prison, with lost weight, heart issues, untreated wounds, and accounts of torture like electric shocks, in inhumane living conditions and medical neglect, while rights groups decry the targeting of Gaza's health workers.
An Israeli court in Beersheba extended Hussam Abu Safiya’s detention for six months in March 2025 and again in October 2025, keeping him imprisoned despite no charges ever being brought against him.
The Red Ribbons Campaign has held a vigil in London outside the Israeli embassy one year after his abduction from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza Strip to demand the release of more than 9,100 Palestinians held in the Israeli occupation prisons, including Dr Hussam Abu Safiyaan and over 450 women and children.
I think about the image pictured often. Dr. Hussam walking over the rubble to a waiting Israeli tank. He expected to discuss the situation and be treated with respect as a neutral medical professional. Instead they took him prisoner. All because he refused to abandon his patients. This is Israel's cruelty. This is occupation. This is Israeli terrorism.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, is a hero, an icon of dedication, compassion and professional ethics.He is the best of all of us. Israel, who lacks all values, wilfully punishes those who embody them. Israel still holds 95 medics in its dungeons their crime: trying to save Palestinian lives. These are the hostages Western media and officials ignore.A full year of injustice has passed. Please share his story to keep his voice alive.
Act now and call on Israeli authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and all other arbitrarily detained Palestinian health workers.
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