{"id":3490,"date":"2025-10-29T15:36:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T15:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/29\/gazas-dr-hussam-abu-safia-is-still-held-by-israel-no-sign-of-release\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T15:36:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T15:36:34","slug":"gazas-dr-hussam-abu-safia-is-still-held-by-israel-no-sign-of-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/29\/gazas-dr-hussam-abu-safia-is-still-held-by-israel-no-sign-of-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza\u2019s Dr Hussam Abu Safia is still held by Israel, no sign of release"},"content":{"rendered":"<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>During Israel\u2019s war on Gaza, Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, was warned by Israeli soldiers for months in 2024 to take his family and leave his duties.<\/p>\n<p>But Abu Safia refused to leave his patients behind, as his colleagues and family said in a documentary by Al Jazeera\u2019s <em>Fault Lines<\/em>.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2025\/10\/28\/grandparents-raising-36-children-after-losing-sons-in-gaza-war\">Grandparents raising 36 children after losing sons in Gaza war<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/podcasts\/2025\/10\/29\/the-take-whats-behind-aipacs-partnership-with-black-us-politicians\">The Take: What\u2019s behind AIPAC\u2019s partnership with Black US politicians?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/10\/29\/horrific-violations-arab-nations-slam-rsf-killings-in-sudans-el-fasher\">\u2018Horrific violations\u2019: Arab nations slam RSF killings in Sudan\u2019s el-Fasher<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Then in December as Israeli forces surrounded the hospital, an Israeli officer called Abu Safia and promised to relocate him and his staff to another hospital.<\/p>\n<p>But the promise was a lie. Instead, the paediatrician and neonatologist was abducted by Israeli forces.<\/p>\n<p>Ten months later, Abu Safia is still in detention as Israel has refused to include him in prisoner exchanges. His lawyer said he\u2019s been subjected to torture and inhumane treatment, including long periods in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"refusing-to-flee\">Refusing to flee<\/h2>\n<p>Before his arrest, Abu Safia watched Israel\u2019s war on Gaza unfold with increasing brutality.<\/p>\n<p>During the earlier days of the war, Abu Safia would do his rounds daily and make videos, calling for international support and awareness over Israel\u2019s war on his homeland.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of people were being killed, and Israel\u2019s siege of Gaza meant that much-needed equipment and medicine were not getting in.<\/p>\n<p>It became apparent that Israel\u2019s war was not just against Hamas but against the Gaza Strip as a whole, including its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/4\/21\/israeli-report-on-killing-of-palestinian-medics-in-gaza-what-to-know\">medical infrastructure<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite increased attacks on healthcare workers, Abu Safia refused to abandon his patients, even after he went from doctor to patient when he was wounded in a drone strike on the hospital on November 25.<\/p>\n<p>His family began to ask him if it might be better to leave Gaza altogether.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said: \u2018If you want to travel, take the kids, but I\u2019m going to stay here to work,\u2019\u201d his wife, Albina, said.<\/p>\n<p>But she refused. \u201cI said: \u2018We need to stay together,\u2019\u201d she said of the \u201cserious and dedicated\u201d medical student she married about 30 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The two met in Kazakhstan in the 1990s when he was studying medicine there.<\/p>\n<p>After the birth of their first son, Elias, Albina and Abu Safia moved back to Gaza in 1998 and lived in the Jabalia refugee camp. Over the coming years, Albina gave birth to three more sons and two daughters.<\/p>\n<p>Elias was married in 2020 and had two children, and a few months before the war began, Albina and Abu Safia moved to a new house in Beit Lahiya.<\/p>\n<p>But the war would upend their life and their family.<\/p>\n<p>During the attack that wounded Abu Safia, his daughter was also wounded by a shard of glass that went into her neck.<\/p>\n<p>His worst day, however, was when he lost his 20-year-old son Ibrahim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis whole life was still ahead of him,\u201d Albina said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wanted to become a doctor like his father. \u2026 He was registered to travel to Kazakhstan [where he was a citizen]. But that never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ibrahim was out at the market when Kamal Adwan Hospital came under attack from quadcopters, Albina said. He told his mother he was at a house by the hospital and would come back when things calmed down.<\/p>\n<p>An Israeli military operation on the hospital ensued and lasted about 30 hours. When it finished, Albina was told to come to the hospital\u2019s reception area. It was the morning of October 25, 2024, and there were many deaths from the Israeli attacks. Among them, however, was one she hadn\u2019t expected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw my husband crying,\u201d she said. \u201cI understood then that my son was killed. It was the hardest day of our lives, \u2026 for me, for my husband and for our children.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"abduction\">Abduction<\/h2>\n<p>Abu Safia still refused to give up his work, even as Israeli attacks on Kamal Adwan intensified and the army surrounded the hospital, but when soldiers arrived at its doors, Abu Safia realised it was time to leave.<\/p>\n<p>An Israeli army officer named Wael allegedly gave Abu Safia assurances that the hospital\u2019s staff would be relocated to the Indonesian Hospital, also in northern Gaza, to continue their crucial work.<\/p>\n<p>Abu Safia told his family, including his remaining five children, who were living in the hospital with him at that point, to pack and that the Israeli army had said it would relocate them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe very last time I saw him was when I got onto the bus with all my daughters and sons,\u201d Albina said. \u201cIt was December 27 around sunset. We haven\u2019t seen him since.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Albina and her children found out the next day from other doctors that the Israelis came, interrogated and mistreated the hospital staff and took Abu Safia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said: \u2018I won\u2019t get in the car until all the doctors leave and I am the last one,\u2019\u201d Albina recalled the hospital staff telling her.<\/p>\n<p>Abu Safia was taken by the Israeli soldiers, who continued attacking the hospital until they withdrew a few weeks later in January. When they finally pulled out, the hospital was inoperable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe went to the hospital, and it was burned and destroyed,\u201d Albina said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey bombed and burned the emergency room, and they bombed the intensive care unit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"imprisoned\">Imprisoned<\/h2>\n<p>Since October 7, Israel has conducted arrests of thousands of Palestinians in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Many have been held without charge or trial and subjected to torture and abuse, according to released prisoners and human rights groups.<\/p>\n<p>After he was arrested, Abu Safia was taken to the Sde Teiman military detention camp in Israel\u2019s Negev desert, where claims of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/7\/30\/are-palestinians-being-tortured-in-israeli-prisons\">torture<\/a> are prevalent, before being transferred to Ofer Prison.<\/p>\n<p>In prison, Abu Safia\u2019s fate would only worsen.<\/p>\n<p>He was deprived of any visitors apart from his lawyer, Ghaid Kassem. Abu Safia was unable to receive his family, so when his mother died, it was Kassem who informed him of her death.<\/p>\n<p>Kassem spoke to <em>Fault Lines<\/em> about her years of experience representing Palestinian prisoners in Israel, nearly all of whom have suffered torture or other inhumane treatment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have covered almost all prisons in Israel,\u201d Kassem told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut of course, the experience after October 7 [2023] is the one that shocked us the most, and it is totally different from before October 7, in particular since we started to represent detainees from Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prisons in Israel have always been a dark place for Palestinians. But Kassem said the number of violations has skyrocketed since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7 two years ago and the start of the war on Gaza. Conditions have worsened to the point that many prisoners are contracting infections and skin diseases, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis huge number of violations, we had never encountered this many before,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Abu Safia himself endured torture and multiple beatings at Sde Teiman, Kassem said. He has also lost an alarming amount of weight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has high blood pressure. He has tachycardia,\u201d Kassem said. Tachycardia is an abnormal heartbeat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is suffering from shrapnel [that is] still in his leg and his right thigh.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Israel\u2019s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and devastated the country\u2019s medical infrastructure. Since a ceasefire came into effect on October 10, Israel has continued to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/10\/27\/despite-ceasefires-israel-continues-attacks-around-the-region\">launch attacks<\/a> in Gaza and across the region.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the ceasefire, Israel <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2025\/10\/13\/explainer-who-are-the-palestinian-captives-israel-released\">agreed to release<\/a> about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of the remaining living Israeli captives held in Gaza and the bodies of the deceased. Thousands of Palestinians, however, remain in custody, and among them is Abu Safia.<\/p>\n<p>His family still hopes he will be released soon. They maintain he\u2019s done nothing wrong and Abu Safia has dedicated his life to serving patients in Gaza. They also hope that if released, his mental and physical capacity doesn\u2019t mirror the damage Israel has caused to healthcare in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey destroyed healthcare in Gaza,\u201d Albina said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey destroyed it. They killed all the doctors and killed many people. What they meant was to kill successful people and kill doctors in order not to allow them to [treat] people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During Israel\u2019s war on Gaza, Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, was warned by Israeli soldiers for months in 2024 to take his family and leave his duties. But Abu Safia refused to leave his patients behind, as his colleagues and family said in a &#8230; <a title=\"Gaza\u2019s Dr Hussam Abu Safia is still held by Israel, no sign of release\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/29\/gazas-dr-hussam-abu-safia-is-still-held-by-israel-no-sign-of-release\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Gaza\u2019s Dr Hussam Abu Safia is still held by Israel, no sign of release\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}