Amnesty International Says Israel Arbitrarily Detained Hussam Abu Safiya Since December 27, 2024

Amnesty International says Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adouan Hospital, has been arbitrarily detained by Israeli authorities since his arrest on December 27, 2024, after Israeli forces raided the hospital and arrested him along with other members of the medical staff and patients.

“Palestinian medical sources confirmed the martyrdom of a doctor and his son after they were targeted by a missile fired by an Israeli drone in the northern Gaza Strip this Monday afternoon”

Al-Jazeera Net

Amnesty International reports that Israeli authorities did not permit Hussam Abu Safiya to meet with a lawyer until February 11, 2025, and that a lawyer who visited him most recently at the Ofer military prison in early July 2025 indicated he and other detainees had been subjected to attacks and violence.

Al-Jazeera Net

Amnesty International also says the arrest and arbitrary detention without indictment or trial of Hussam Abu Safiya, under the Law on the Incarceration of Illegal Combatants, reflect Israel's systematic attacks on Palestinian health professionals and the destruction of Gaza's health system.

RFI says it has been a year since Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyeh was imprisoned by Israel, describing him as a Palestinian pediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan who kept the hospital running and confronted Israeli tanks.

RFI quotes his lawyer, Gheed Qassem, saying, "The detention conditions lack any humanitarian consideration and, unfortunately, violate all rules and laws of international law".

Le HuffPost and Le Devoir describe an Israeli airstrike on Khan Younis that killed nine children from the Palestinian doctor couple Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar and Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar, with Civil Defense rescuers searching the rubble after the bombing.

Le HuffPost says the Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal explained that Dr. Hamdi al-Najjar and their tenth child, Adam, were both seriously injured, and that according to al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis the only surviving child is 10 years old.

Amnesty International

Le Devoir reports that Mahmoud Bassal told AFP that on Friday, May 23, 2025, their teams transferred to the hospital the bodies of nine martyred children, some of whom were burned, from the home of Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar and his wife, Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar.

Le Devoir also states that the Israeli army told AFP that one of its aircraft had "struck several individuals suspected of operating from an adjacent structure" to soldiers in that area.

Le HuffPost quotes Mounir Albourche, director-general of the Health Ministry of the Hamas government for the Gaza Strip, saying on X, "A few minutes after his return, a missile struck their house".

Amnesty International frames Hussam Abu Safiya’s detention as part of Israel’s "systematic attacks on Palestinian health professionals" and says the raid on Kamal Adouan Hospital occurred when it was "the last hospital in operation in northern Gaza at the time."

“Death is sweeter than this torment: the story of a doctor couple who lost nine children in an Israeli raid on Gaza”

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Le Devoir adds that Israel has besieged the Gaza Strip since the start of the war and bans access to the territory for journalists coming from outside, while also reporting that after a two-month truce Israel resumed its offensive on March 18 in Gaza.

Le Devoir says indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, which took power in Gaza in 2007, are at a standstill, and it reports that of the 251 people abducted on October 7, 2023, 57 remain held in Gaza, of whom at least 34 have died, according to Israeli authorities.

Le Devoir further reports that more than 53,901 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military retaliation campaign, according to figures from the Hamas Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.

RFI quotes Gheed Qassem again, saying the policy is "aimed at humiliating him, to make an example of him for all those who might be tempted to disobey the orders of the Israeli army".