Calls have been made for the release of Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was to be arrested Saturday and many others by the Israeli army in an attack on a site in northern Gaza.
Fears are growing for the safety of Abu Sufia, whose whereabouts are unknown since he was detained in the last defunct hospital in northern Gaza, which has been destroyed by Israeli bombardment during the weeks-long siege by the army.
MedGlobal, a humanitarian organization that provides medical care in dangerous areas, has called for Abu Safia's immediate release, while the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “dismayed” by the attack on the hospital.
Abu Safia's last photo, widely shared on social media, showed him walking towards an Israeli tank near Kamal Adwan's hospital, which was located there. they were burned by Israeli soldiers during Friday's violence.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that Abu Safia had been detained for questioning, on suspicion of being a “Hamas terrorist”. It arrested more than 240 people from the hospital.
Since October 6, Israel's operations in Gaza have focused on the north, where the military says its ground and air strikes are aimed at preventing Hamas from mobilizing.
Location unknown
Zaher Sahloul, president of MedGlobal, said in a statement that Abu Safia's arrest was “unjust and a violation of international humanitarian law”.
“His arrest is not only unjust – it is a violation of international humanitarian law, which guarantees the safety of medical workers in conflict zones. MedGlobal urgently calls for Dr Abu's (Safia) immediate and unconditional release.”
Agnes Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International, said Abu Safia is considered a human rights defender by Front Line Defenders, an Irish organization that works to protect people who are at risk of their peaceful and legitimate human rights work.
The attack was also the last at the hospital during the warhow Israel looked at the medical center.
“The systematic elimination of health care and the siege of more than 80 days in northern Gaza put the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk,” the UN Health agency said.
Dr Ali Elaydi, an orthopedic surgeon from Gaza, says the Israeli attack on the Kamal Adwan hospital and the arrest of Dr Abu Safia are aimed at ridding the north of its residents.
“It deprives all the people in northern Gaza of regular medical care. I believe it is aimed at forcing people to leave northern Gaza,” Elaydi told Al Jazeera from the city of Dallas in the US.
“It's systematic. (The Israelis) have decided that without health care, they (Palestinians in northern Gaza) will have to move. “
“It's a warning to any other doctor not to talk about their patients.”
On Friday, Hamas denied Israel's claims that its fighters had worked at the hospital throughout the period 15 months of the Gaza warsaying that no combatant was in the hospital.
The WHO said the Kamal Adwan hospital's remaining 15 critical patients, 50 caregivers and 20 medical staff were transferred on Friday to a nearby Indonesian hospital, which it said was “destroyed and inoperable”.
It also said that the WHO will carry out an urgent operation to the Indonesian Hospital on Sunday, in part to evacuate patients in Gaza City.
Killing Adnan al-Bursh
Abu Safia, a pediatrician by training, has defied several Israeli orders to leave the Kamal Adwan Hospital.
He was briefly arrested and released when Israeli forces overthrew Kamal Adwan in late October.
During the same operation, the Israeli army killed Abu Safia's son, Ibrahim, in a drone attack on the hospital gate.
Abu Safia was wounded by shrapnel from another Israeli attack on the hospital on November 23, but he continued his work, informing the world about what was happening at the hospital.
This is not the first time that the Israeli army has attacked a hospital and medical professionals. Adnan al-Bursh, a well-known Palestinian orthopedic surgeon and head of orthopedics at al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza before its destruction, he was killed allegedly due to torture in an Israeli prison.
He was working at al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza in December when he and other soldiers were arrested by Israeli forces.