Gaza Metropolis – Dr Hussam Abu Safia, 52, stays in an Israeli jail a 12 months after Israel detained him with out prices or trial.
His household and supporters are demanding his launch as his well being deteriorates amid reviews of the inhumane circumstances below which he’s being held.
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Abu Safia, recognized for his steadfast presence as director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza Metropolis, has change into central in worldwide discussions on the safety of medical personnel in armed conflicts.
He insisted on staying on the hospital, together with a number of medical workers, regardless of steady Israeli assaults on the power.
Israel ultimately surrounded the hospital and compelled everybody to evacuate. Since then, Abu Safia has been in detention, and the hospital has been out of service.
He was transferred between Israeli prisons, from the infamous Sde Teiman holding facility to Ofer Jail, being mistreated repeatedly.
No prices have been introduced in opposition to Abu Safia, who’s held below the “illegal combatant” legislation, which permits detention and not using a customary felony trial and denies detainees entry to the proof in opposition to them.
A household’s struggling
Abu Safia is being held in excessive circumstances and, in accordance with attorneys, has misplaced greater than a 3rd of his physique weight.
His household is apprehensive about him as he additionally suffers from coronary heart issues, an irregular heartbeat, hypertension, pores and skin infections and an absence of specialized medical care.
His eldest son, Ilyas, 27, advised Al Jazeera through Zoom from Kazakhstan, the place the household fled a month in the past, about their grief over Abu Safia’s detention, including that his father’s solely “crime” was being a health care provider.
Ilyas, his mom Albina and 4 siblings stayed together with his father at Kamal Adwan by means of the Israeli assaults, regardless of alternatives to go away Gaza, particularly as Albina is a Kazakh citizen.
On October 26, 2024, Israel killed Ilyas’s brother, Ibrahim, 20, whereas it shelled the hospital.
“The complete medical workers cried in grief for [my father] and for Ibrahim,” Ilyas mentioned.
The taking of Dr Abu Safia
At daybreak on December 27, 2024, the hospital woke as much as a tightened Israeli siege with tanks and quadcopter drones.
Israeli tanks had been round Kamal Adwan since mid-October 2024, regularly shifting nearer – destroying elements of the infrastructure like water tanks – till that day after they have been so shut no person may transfer outdoors.
Sufferers and workers gathered within the emergency reception hall, in accordance with Dr Walid al-Badi, 29, who stayed with Abu Safia till his arrest, and spoke to Al Jazeera on December 25 on the Baptist Hospital in Gaza Metropolis.
“The state of affairs was extraordinarily tense, loudspeakers have been calling on everybody to evacuate, however Dr Abu Safia requested us to stay calm. Then the loudspeakers referred to as Dr Abu Safia to come back to the tank.”
Abu Safia was ordered to enter an armoured car. Based on al-Badi, the physician returned carrying a sheet of directions, dishevelled, his garments dusty and a bruise below his chin.
Everybody rushed to verify on him, and he advised them that he had been assaulted.
“Israeli media confirmed a video claiming they … handled him with respect, however they didn’t present … how he was assaulted within the tank, threatened,” al-Badi mentioned.
Abu Safia was ordered by the Israelis to organize an inventory of everybody within the hospital, which he did and returned to the armoured car, the place he was advised that solely 20 workers may stay. The remainder needed to go away.
“Round 10am, the Israelis allowed some ambulances to take sufferers, wounded individuals, some displaced civilians, and the physician’s household to the Indonesian Hospital [about 1km away] whereas the medical groups left on foot,” al-Badi recounts.
Nevertheless, a number of sufferers remained, besieged together with the medics.
“The physician advised me to go, however I advised him I might stick with him till the top.”
The one feminine medic who remained was intensive care unit head, Dr Mai Barhouma, who spoke to Al Jazeera from the Baptist Hospital.
Barhouma had been working with important sufferers depending on medical gear and oxygen, and her conscience wouldn’t enable her to go away, regardless of Abu Safia asking her to.
The Israeli military repeatedly summoned Abu Safia for brand new directions, as soon as, in accordance with Drs Barhouma and al-Badi, providing a secure exit for him alone.
He refused, insisting that he would keep together with his workers. At about 10pm, the quadcopters ordered everybody to line up and evacuate.
Throughout this time, Israel shelled and set hearth to the higher flooring and turned off the electrical energy.
“We have been heartbroken as Dr Abu Safia led [us] out,” al-Badi recalled. “I hugged Dr Abu Safia, who was crying as he left the hospital he tried so laborious to remain in.”
Testimonies from that day say medical workers have been taken to al-Fakhoura Faculty in Jabalia, the place they have been overwhelmed and tortured by Israeli troopers throughout interrogations.
Barhouma left in an ambulance with an ICU affected person, however the ambulance was held for hours on the faculty.
“The troopers sure our arms and compelled us to stroll in direction of al-Fakhoura faculty, [2km away] from the hospital. Our colleagues who had left within the morning have been nonetheless there, being tortured,” al-Badi recalled, including that they arrived at about midnight.
“They ordered us to strip all the way down to our underwear, tied our arms and commenced severely beating us with boots and rifle butts, insulting and verbally abusing us.”
The interrogation and beatings of the medics within the freezing chilly continued for hours whereas Barhouma was within the ambulance with the critically sick affected person.
“The oxygen ran out, so I began utilizing a handbook resuscitation pump. My arms swelled from pumping nonstop, terrified that the affected person would die,” she mentioned.
She described listening to the screams of the male medics being tortured, after which being ordered out of the ambulance by Israeli troopers.
“The soldier requested for my ID and took an eye fixed scan, then ordered me to get out, however I refused and advised him I had a important affected person who would die if I left them.”
Finally, the Israelis launched the medics, together with al-Badi and Abu Safia, ordering them to move for western Gaza, whereas sending the ambulance with Barhouma in it on an alternate route westwards.
However the aid didn’t final. That they had solely walked just a few metres when an Israeli officer referred to as out to Abu Safia.
“Our faces froze,” al-Badi mentioned. “The physician requested what was incorrect. The officers mentioned: ‘We would like you with us in Israel.’”
Al-Badi and a nurse tried to drag the physician away, however he rebuked them and advised them to maintain strolling.
“I used to be crying like a toddler being separated from his father as I watched the physician being arrested and dressed within the white nylon uniform for detainees.”
Requires his launch
Abu Safia’s household are interesting to human rights and authorized our bodies for his fast launch.
“My father’s attorneys visited him round seven occasions over the previous 12 months, [each visit allowed only] after exhausting makes an attempt with the jail administration. Every time, my father’s situation has deteriorated considerably,” Ilyas advised Al Jazeera.
“[He] has fractures in his thigh and shrapnel in his foot from an damage whereas on the hospital earlier than his arrest. He additionally suffers different well being issues and is subjected to extreme psychological and bodily abuse that doesn’t befit his age.
“Israel is making an attempt to criminalise my father’s work, his continued service to individuals and his efforts to avoid wasting the wounded and the sick in an space Israel itself thought-about a ‘crimson zone’ on the time.
“My father’s presence and steadfastness contained in the hospital posed a serious impediment to the Israeli military and its plan to empty the north of its residents.”
Ilyas is pleased with his father.
“My father is a health care provider who will likely be held up worldwide for example of adherence to medical ethics and braveness.
“I’m proud past phrases, and I hope to embrace him quickly and see him emerge from the darkness of jail secure and nicely.”
