GAZA STRIP:
Israel’s raid on a serious Gaza hospital and the arrest of its director over alleged hyperlinks to Hamas have drawn world consideration to the war-ravaged territory’s crumbling healthcare system.
For weeks, as preventing escalated across the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia space, its head Hossam Abu Safiyeh made determined appeals to the worldwide neighborhood to intervene and cease the violence “earlier than it’s too late”.
Within the early hours of Friday, the Israeli navy launched a serious raid on the hospital, describing it as “one of many largest operations” it had carried out for the reason that conflict in Gaza broke out in October final 12 months.
The raid ended a day later, with the navy asserting that it killed greater than 20 militants and arrested over 240, together with Abu Safiyeh on suspicion of “being a Hamas operative”.
Since then, the whereabouts of the 51-year-old paediatrician have been unknown.
The World Well being Organisation has stated Kamal Adwan hospital has been out of service ever since, a large blow to the healthcare system in northern Gaza, the place tens of hundreds reside beneath ongoing Israeli bombardment.
His household believes he’s being detained on the Sde Teiman navy base within the Negev desert, close to Gaza.
“This detention centre is infamous for the mistreatment of prisoners,” his son, Idris Abu Safiyeh, stated in a video message on Monday night.
“We now have acquired testimonies from launched detainees who reported that he was subjected to humiliation and abuse,” he stated. “He was reportedly pressured to strip”.
Regardless of repeated makes an attempt by AFP, the Israeli navy has declined to specify Abu Safiyeh’s location. It has additionally not responded to allegations of his abuse.
A number of different medical workers of Kamal Adwan Hospital have been detained within the raid as effectively.
“There is no such thing as a justification for these arrests apart from a need to destroy the healthcare system,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence company, instructed AFP. He described the scenario as “catastrophic and tragic.”
On Tuesday, a United Nations report revealed that Israeli strikes on and close to hospitals in Gaza have led to the close to whole collapse of the healthcare system within the Palestinian territory of two.4 million folks.
“Israel’s sample of lethal assaults on and close to hospitals in Gaza, and related fight, pushed the healthcare system to the brink of whole collapse, with catastrophic impact on Palestinians’ entry to well being and medical care,” the UN human rights workplace stated in a press release.
Israeli officers have repeatedly accused Hamas of utilizing the territory’s hospitals as command and management centres for launching assaults in opposition to Israeli forces.
Abu Safiyeh’s household has urged the worldwide neighborhood to strain Israel for his immediate launch — and their message has resonated.
The World Well being Organisation led by its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has known as for the “instant launch” of the hospital director.
Rights group Amnesty Worldwide has echoed the decision, saying Abu Safiyeh had been the “voice of Gaza’s decimated well being sector”.
Healthcare professionals internationally have additionally urged for his launch, rallying on social media beneath the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya.
He was praised as a “hero in a white gown” in a number of social media posts for persevering with his work amid an intense Israeli navy marketing campaign in northern Gaza.
Since October 6, Israeli forces have intensified their land and sea assault on northern Gaza, saying it was aimed toward stopping Hamas from regrouping there.
In accordance with the US-based NGO MedGlobal, which employs him, Abu Safiyeh misplaced a teenage son in an Israeli air strike in late October, whereas he himself was injured within the leg days later.
From a hospital mattress, he, nevertheless, declared in a video that the harm wouldn’t deter him from fulfilling his mission, “no matter the fee”.