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Hussam Abu Safiya in critical condition in Israeli custody

newsJul 5, 202618554

Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has been held by Israeli forces without charge for 18 months and is now reported in critical condition, his lawyer Nasser Odeh said after a prison visit on July 2. Odeh’s affidavit described fresh injuries to Abu Safiya’s head, eyes, ears and neck, severe weakness that left him struggling to breathe and unable to sit without falling, and repeated losses of consciousness. Abu Safiya told his lawyer “This is the last time you will see me. They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving. This is the end.” UN experts, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other organisations have documented allegations of torture, daily beatings, prolonged solitary confinement and denial of adequate medical care during his detention. Abu Safiya, a paediatrician who kept reopening Kamal Adwan as Gaza’s last major functioning hospital for an estimated 75,000 people during the siege, was detained on 27 December 2024 when Israeli forces raided the hospital and rendered it inoperable. Those organisations and his lawyer have called for an urgent independent medical examination, immediate intervention and his release.

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🚨URGENT: Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s life is in immediate danger, Physicians for Human Rights Israel & his lawyer warned Saturday, after a prison visit revealed the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital bearing fresh, severe injuries to his head, eyes, ears & neck, so disfigured his own attorney initially...

🚨URGENT: Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s life is in immediate danger, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and his lawyer warned Saturday, after a prison visit revealed the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital bearing fresh, severe injuries to his head, eyes, ears, and neck, so disfigured his own attorney initially struggled to recognize him.

🔹Attorney Nasser Odeh, who saw Abu Safiya Thursday at the underground Rakefet interrogation facility in Nitzan Prison, said he arrived shackled hand and foot, escorted by masked guards, struggling to breathe and speak, unable to sit upright, and repeatedly on the verge of losing consciousness. 

🔹Abu Safiya told him that after his Supreme Court appeal was heard June 10, four or five guards entered his solitary cell at Ganot Prison and beat him with a hammer and batons, and that since his June 24 transfer to Rakefet he has been beaten daily, losing consciousness several times without receiving medical treatment.

🔹“This is the last time you will see me,” he told his lawyer. “They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving. This is the end.”

🔹PHRI notes the escalation in torture began directly after Abu Safiya challenged his detention in court. He has been held without charge since December 27, 2024, under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law. 

🔹The group has appealed to Israel’s attorney general and prison service demanding his immediate transfer, an independent medical examination, and an urgent judicial visit “before it is too late.”

Photo: Amnesty International
19921h ago
Quoting this
Ryan Grim87

They are relentlessly torturing Dr. Abu Safiya

Viktor 🇵🇸🍉🦘🦘🪃15

@australianlabor.bsky.social @albomp.bsky.social RELEASE THE HOSTAGES ILLEGALLY INCARCERATED IN ISRAEL SANCTION ISRAEL NOW

Briony Kidd12

Save Dr Abu Safiya! He must be released now, immediately. We must contact our reps and *demand* that they apply sanctions and boycott Israel until they cease their human rights abuses. The Netanyahu Government cannot continue to act like this with impunity. #auspol #freeDrAbuSafiya #freepalestine

Tommy Valdez11

Israel is going to murder a doctor while their lobby tries to send Haley Stevens to the US Senate. We really gotta help Abdul win so we can put pressure on Israel to get Hussam home.

Erika Shaker7

This paediatrician is being tortured to death. A paediatrician. Tortured to death.

Ben Shapiro's Eye Merkins6

@anitaoakvilleeast.bsky.social and @mark-carney.bsky.social will happily watch him die. Perhaps after the fact they will express concern. Not actual concern, but the idea of concern.

@Mary-The-Cat.bsky.social ( I'm MaryPG Keating)4

omfg Worst possible news. Is nobody going to step up to save his life????

livesarah4

Anthony Albanese stands behind this. Why would you trust a person who condones gross abuses of human rights, and genocide, to govern in YOUR interests? It’s not just something from which we in Australia are far removed. The genocide supporters are here, too. How does this not frighten people?

Aberdeen City Arts Board3

The friends of these guys run our government. Isn't that nice?

Troels Halken 🇪🇺 🇬🇪🇷🇸🇺🇦🌻 🇱🇧🇵🇸🍉2

Who holds doctors in #ConcentrationCamps along w at least 10.000 other Palestinians for no crime but being Palestinians, and slowly kills their victims over a year with a hammer? Who are that evil? @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu @eucopresident.consilium.europa.eu 🍉 #Genocide

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