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kamal adwan hospital
'Profound Moral and Legal Failure': Israeli Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya
"If Israel has evidence against Abu Safiya, it should indict him and present that evidence," said the editors of Israel's oldest daily newspaper. "If it doesn't have evidence against him, it needs to release him."
Jun 16, 2026
Defenders of Palestine, human rights, and the rule of law denounced the Israeli Supreme Court's rejection Tuesday of an appeal from Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the Gaza hospital director imprisoned by Israel for 535 days without charge or trial and allegedly tortured by his captors.
In its decision, Israel's highest court cited a 2002 law allowing the government to detain people it classifies as "unlawful combatants" without charging them with a criminal offense or prosecuting them as prisoners of war.
The Times of Israel reported that because the Supreme Court's decision was based on classified intelligence, it will not be publicly released.
Israel claims Abu Safiya—a 52-year-old pediatrician who was the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia when he was abducted on December 28, 2024 during one of multiple Israeli sieges and assaults on the facility—is a colonel in Gaza's Military Medical Services. Israeli officials cited the service's own records and a 2016 photo showing the doctor wearing a uniform and seated beside members of Hamas, which carried out the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
However, supporters of Abu Safiya, human rights groups, and many medical organizations contend that "colonel" is a state medical corps rank rather than a combat command role, and note that Hamas' political wing rules Gaza. They point to positions and organizations like the US surgeon general and US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps—which is one of the nation's eight uniformed services but not part of the military—as illustrative of the concept.
“The rejection of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s appeal and his continued detention without charge represent a profound moral and legal failure,” said Naji Abbas, director of the Prisoners and Detainees Department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel, following the court's decision.
"Dr. Abu Safiya’s case is not an isolated one. It illustrates how judicial review proceedings for Palestinian detainees from Gaza have, in practice, become little more than a procedural formality," Abbas added. "Every month, hundreds of detention review hearings take place, yet to the best of our knowledge, they have not resulted in the meaningful reconsideration or revocation of detention orders—even in cases involving doctors and other medical personnel."
The Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy said the high court's rejection of Abu Safiya's appeal "constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, which provide special protection for medical personnel during armed conflicts and prohibit their targeting or arbitrary detention for carrying out their humanitarian and professional duties."
"Dr. Abu Safiya remains held in solitary confinement at Nafha Prison under harsh and degrading detention conditions, while being denied necessary medical treatment and the most basic fundamental rights guaranteed to prisoners and detainees," the center continued, adding that it "holds the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the life and safety of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, and calls for his immediate release, the provision of urgent medical care, and an end to the policy of arbitrary detention against medical and humanitarian personnel."
United Nations experts in March cited "reports that Dr. Abu Safiya has been subjected to torture and other cruel and degrading treatment, and that his health condition remains dire," as well as "flagrantly arbitrary" detention, in calling for his release. UN agencies, human rights groups, elected officials, and professional groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics are among those demanding that Israel free Abu Safiya.
Last week, Abu Safiya—who showed visible signs of his alleged torture—appeared remotely via video before the Supreme Court to demand his release following at least four major detention extensions or renewals.
“My detention is unjust and arbitrary, and I demand my immediate release,” he told the court. “I am a pediatrician who provides medical services and care to patients, the wounded and vulnerable people in the Gaza Strip.”
Abu Safiya was abducted while defying an Israeli forced displacement order by refusing to evacuate Kamal Adwan Hospital as long as patients were still being treated. In one of several Israel Defense Forces attacks on the facility, Israeli troops surrounded, bombarded, and then stormed the hospital over three weeks in December 2024, killing and wounding staff and patients while terrified children and other people were being treated inside.
During a previous Israeli attack on Kamal Adwan, Abu Safiya’s 15-year-old son was killed in a drone strike, and the doctor was seriously wounded in a separate drone attack that left six pieces of shrapnel in his leg.
As the invaders expelled Kamal Adwan's patients and staff, Abu Safiya sounded the alarm on the "catastrophic" conditions inside the facility, which, according to alleged victims and witnesses, included Israelis sexually assaulting women and girls as young as 13.
After his capture, Abu Safiya was first jailed at the notorious Sde Teiman prison in Israel’s Negev Desert—where dozens of detainees have died and where torture, sexual assault, and other abuses have been reported—and then Ofer Prison in the illegally occupied West Bank. He was subsequently transferred to Ketziot Prison and then Nafha Prison in the Ramon Prison complex.
Abu Safiya said he has endured torture by his captors—including beatings with batons and electric shocks—and suffered severe weight loss, broken ribs, and other injuries, for which he was allegedly denied adequate medical care.
Israeli authorities deny these accusations. However, there have been many documented and otherwise credible reports of health and medical workers being tortured by Israeli forces—sometimes fatally, as in the case of Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, who headed the orthopedic department at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
According to Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, al-Bursh was “likely raped to death."
Responding to the Israeli Supreme Court's decision, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis—an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights—said Tuesday on social media that "the heroic doctor's torture by Israel continues."
"They continue to torture Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya for the crime of not abandoning his patients," he added. "Without laying charges [or] offering him anything resembling due process, Israel is killing him slowly. One day, everyone will say they were against this."
On Monday, the editors of Haaretz, Israel's oldest daily newspaper, asserted in an editorial that Abu Safiya's "continued detention, and that of the other doctors from Gaza, is an injustice and constitutes collective punishment for Gaza's residents, who need their service" amid an ongoing public health crisis.
"If Israel has evidence against Abu Safiya, it should indict him and present that evidence," the editors argued. "If it doesn't have evidence against him, it needs to release him, and all the other jailed doctors, promptly."
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Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, Abducted by Israel in 2024, Renews Demand for 'Immediate Release'
The pediatrician and hospital director—who is reportedly being held in solitary confinement—called his imprisonment "unjust and arbitrary."
Jun 11, 2026
Showing signs of the "severe torture" he has allegedly endured at the hands of his Israeli captors over 530 days of detention without charge, Palestinian physician and Gaza hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya appeared remotely before the Israel's Supreme Court on Wednesday to demand his freedom.
“My detention is unjust and arbitrary, and I demand my immediate release,” Abu Safia—who appeared to have lost considerable weight—told the court through his defense attorney, Nasser Abu Odeh. “I am a pediatrician who provides medical services and care to patients, the wounded and vulnerable people in the Gaza Strip.”
Abu Safiya's son, Ilyas Abu Safiya, spoke with Al Jazeera after the hearing, telling the Qatar-owned network, “When we saw his latest image, we received it with shock, with tears, and with weeping."
“We did not only see the face of a father we have missed for many long months, we saw the marks of torture, pain, and exhaustion clearly etched on his face."
Abu Safiya lost his mother to a fatal heart attack during his imprisonment, and his 15-year-old son Ibrahim Hussam Idris Abu Safiya was killed in an October 2024 drone strike.
Israeli troops detained Abu Safiya—now 52 years old—on December 28, 2024 amid a prolonged siege and assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, where he served as director. Abu Safiya defied an Israeli forced displacement order and refused to evacuate the facility as long as patients were still being treated.
Israel accuses Abu Safiya of being affiliated with Hamas, whose armed wing led the October 7, 2023 attack, and whose political division governs Gaza. Specifically, Israel claims the doctor is an officer in Hamas' Military Medical Services.
However, Israel has produced no verifiable evidence supporting its claims.
Former inmates at the notorious Sde Teiman torture prison in southern Israel's Negev Desert said they saw Abu Safiya there. According to testimonies gathered by the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, the physician was tortured before his arrival at Sde Teiman and inside the prison.
Abu Safiya was subsequently transferred to Ofer Prison in the illegally occupied West Bank, where another renowned Gaza physician, Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, died after reportedly enduring torture. United Nations Palestine expert Francesca Albanese cited reports that al-Bursh was “likely raped to death."
Israeli courts have repeatedly extended Abu Safiya's detention, most recently in late April. Last week, the advocacy group Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) said that Abu Safiya was moved to solitary confinement in Nafha Prison, also in the Negev, reportedly in retaliation for appealing his imprisonment.
“Dr. Hussam remains in solitary confinement in Nafha Prison. He appeared in court via screen, handcuffed and shackled; the court refused to remove the shackles,” Abu Odeh told Al Jazeera on Thursday.
"He has not received medical treatment or the medications he requires for his chronic illness," the attorney said of his client. "He continues to suffer from severe back and neck pain following an assault, and is experiencing vision problems after his glasses were confiscated and have not yet been returned.”
PHRI has repeatedly demanded the release not only of Abu Safiya but of more than a dozen other Palestinian doctors and hundreds of medical professionals jailed by Israel.
"Since the start of the genocide in Gaza, Israel has arrested hundreds of essential medical workers, effectively paralyzing an already fragile healthcare system under constant destruction," the group recently said. "These arrests have removed critical, highly trained individuals from their roles at a time when their expertise is most urgently needed. Dozens of these medical workers remain detained without due process as of today, many held for prolonged periods."
PHRI "calls for the immediate cancellation of these detention orders and urges both national and international actors to take action in solidarity, enabling these physicians to return home and resume their lifesaving duties."
A UN commission concluded in 2024 that “Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza" that has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing. The UN experts further accused Israel of "committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities.”
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Doctors Without Borders Warns Newborn Babies at Dire Risk as Israel Assails Gaza Hospitals
"It's an impossible situation, because even if we prioritize the little fuel that is left to the most urgent departments, we know that they won't last more than 36 to 48 hours," said Julie Faucon, MSF medical team leader in Gaza.
Jan 09, 2025
The international humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders or MSF, warned in a Wednesday statement that newborn babies and other patients are at dire risk as southern Gaza's Nasser Hospital runs out of fuel.
The group warned that electricity for the MSF-supported Nasser Hospital, where MSF members are providing emergency, maternity, pediatric, burn, and trauma care, may be cut off for some hospital departments leaving patients without "lifesaving care." The hospital's neonatal intensive care unit is currently treating children and newborns who are reliant on mechanical ventilation and incubators. All of these young patients are dependent on electricity from fuel generators, MSF wrote.
Nasser Hospital, as well as two other facilities in the Gaza Strip, Al-Aqsa Hospital and European Gaza Hospital, are nearing the need to close due to lack of fuel, the group reported Wednesday.
"It's an impossible situation, because even if we prioritize the little fuel that is left to the most urgent departments, we know that they won't last more than 36 to 48 hours," said Julie Faucon, MSF medical team leader in Gaza, according to the statement. "While some patients are hanging on by a thread, the lack of sustained electricity is impacting the level of care we can provide to those with burns and trauma."
Pascale Coissard, MSF emergency coordinator, said that the situation is "a consequence of Israel's ongoing blockade and continuous criminal looting of lifesaving supplies."
In mid-July, the United Nations reported that "Israeli authorities continue to tightly control allocations of incoming fuel, thereby limiting humanitarian operations, especially by local partners," and just last week the body noted that only 16 of the region's 36 hospitals remained partially in operation.
Pointing to lack of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel, Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization representative for the West Bank and Gaza, told a recent U.N. Security Council meeting that "the health sector is being systematically dismantled."
Attacks by the Israeli military have left northern Gaza's three hospitals—the Kamal Adwan Hospital, al-Awda Hospital, and the Indonesian Hospital—either entirely out of service or barely functioning.
Hussam Abu Safia, the head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, was detained by Israeli forces during their raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in late December.
Human rights defenders and the medical community have called for his release, it's believed that he is being held in an Israeli detention center, though the Israeli officials had given news media and human rights groups conflicting messages about his whereabouts.
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Health Workers Plan Global Day of Action to Demand 'End to the Genocide in Gaza'
"After witnessing 15 months of relentless violence and destruction in Gaza, we can no longer carry on as if everything is normal," said organizer Doctors Against Genocide.
Jan 03, 2025
As Israel's 15-month annihilation of Gaza continues with intensified attacks on medical infrastructure and workers, an international coalition of advocacy groups is planning a
#SickFromGenocide global day of action on Monday "to take a stand against the targeted attacks on healthcare."
Organizer Doctors Against Genocide (DAG) and co-sponsors including Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Do No Harm Coalition, Labor for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council, and others are calling on healthcare workers around the world to take a day of mental health leave "to reflect on the immense moral injury of funding a genocide and engage the most important aspect of treatment: publicly demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza."
Monday's day of action is set to include a "Sick From Genocide" global vigil and pop-up clinics in cities across the United States, whose government gives Israel billions of dollars in weapons support each year.
"For 15 months, we have watched in horror as children and families have been obliterated by unrelenting attacks," DAG said in a statement Friday. "Hospitals, the bedrock of lifesaving care, have been turned into death traps. The recent bombing and burning of Kamal Adwan Hospital and the arrest of our colleague, the pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, exemplify the deliberate targeting of healthcare workers and facilities—tactics designed to accelerate the annihilation and forced displacement of the Palestinian people in Gaza."
DAG member Dr. Rupa Marya—a University of California, San Francisco professor of medicine who's currently on paid suspension after questioning how to manage students coming to U.S. schools from a zone with an active genocide where military service is mandatory—told Common Dreams this week that healthcare professionals should "take a mental health break to grieve and take care of ourselves. Let's call in sick on January 6th. We are sick from genocide."
"We are burned out from 15 months of these images and our humanity being denied in our places of work, where we are being silenced, we are being framed as 'haters' for standing against a genocide," she advised.
"What we're asking people to do, is get your friends together, and start a pop-up clinic, set up a free clinic in the street," Marya continued. "Are other people sick from genocide? Come, we'll take care of you. Do people need free healthcare? Come, we'll take care of you."
"We need to demand that our institutions of care cut off relationships with a nation that is actively committing genocide," she asserted. "We need to demand that the United States stop sending arms to Israel. We send billions and billions of dollars to Israel to arm itself while we have people not getting healthcare in the United States."
"We have record numbers of people in the streets, many of them who have lost their homes because the most common cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is medical debt," Marya noted. "So we can't even fund our own healthcare here, while we're sending money to Israel, where they have universal healthcare."
"Let's start showing people what a different healthcare system would look like based in a moral commitment to care, based on our love for our communities, and based on justice," she said. "That is the healthcare system that we need."
"Why are we spending our money destroying another people's healthcare when we can use that money to be taking care of our own here?"
Referring to last month's assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, Marya added: "And if you don't believe me, look what happened to that CEO. We don't want to see political violence here. We don't want people to have to get murdered for us to understand how desperate people are for healthcare."
"So," she asked, "why are we spending our money destroying another people's healthcare when we can use that money to be taking care of our own here?"
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'Where the Hell Is Doctor Hussam?' Israel Gives Mixed Messages on Gaza Hospital Director
"To suggest he isn't in custody is an insult to the public's intelligence," said Dr. Muhammad Brika, his colleague at Kamal Adwan Hospital.
Jan 03, 2025
Israeli officials this week have given a human rights group and news media conflicting messages about Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza who was detained when Israel's troops attacked the facility a week ago.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) contacted Mashlat—the Israeli body responsible for coordinating with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) regarding the location of detainees from the Gaza Strip—on behalf of Abu Safiya's family.
On Thursday, PHRI shared on social media a screenshot of Mashlat's email claiming to have "no indication of the arrest or detention of the individual in question," which contradicts the IDF's Friday statement to CNN.
"On December 27, 2024, military forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, surrounded the building, and arrested Dr. Abu Safiya," PHRI
detailed in the social media thread. "In a video recording, the senior doctor is seen walking toward an armored military vehicle and is taken from there for interrogation."
That same day, an Israeli spokesperson "confirmed that he was arrested and transferred for questioning, but since then, his whereabouts have entirely vanished," the group noted. "Unfortunately, the court gave the state one week to respond regarding the hospital director's location."
Following the email to PHRI, CNN reported Friday:
The IDF has since told CNN that Dr. Abu Safiya "was apprehended for suspected involvement in terrorist activities, and for holding a rank in the Hamas terror organization, while hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital under his management. He is currently being investigated by Israeli security forces."
It made similar allegations about the hospital and its director around the time of the raid on the facility, without providing evidence for the claims.
While decimating Gaza hospitals and other civilian infrastructure—and killing at least 45,658 Palestinians—since October 2023, the IDF has repeatedly accused those killed and detained of ties to militant groups, often without sharing any evidence.
Citing recently released former detainees,
CNN reported Monday that Abu Safiya was among the medical professionals being held at Israel's notorious Sde Teiman military base in the Negev Desert, but his location has not been publicly confirmed as of Friday.
PHRI on Friday
circulated comments from Dr. Muhammad Brika, Abu Safiya's colleague at Kamal Adwan Hospital, who said: "To suggest he isn't in custody is an insult to the public's intelligence. The events we experienced were very clear."
"We remained at Kamal Adwan until the very end, until the military invaded the hospital," Brika continued, recalling the attack. "Dr. Abu Safiya was there the entire time. The image shown in the media, where he appears to be led towards the tank, does not reflect the reality of his arrest... Many details haven't been made public, and the truth is far different from the narrative they've tried to create."
"That same day, around 10:00 pm, we were forcibly transported to Al-Fakhoora school, with Dr. Abu Safiya up front," the doctor explained. "Upon arrival, we were treated horribly—forced to strip down to our underwear and left standing in the freezing cold. This continued until 1:30 am, during which Dr. Abu Safiya was taken into the school, either for interrogation or to give testimony. It's unclear what exactly was happening."
Abu Safiya was then brought back to the rest of the hospital workers, according to Brika. Israeli officers "told us one group would be arrested while the other would be allowed to leave the school," the doctor said. "At the last moment, they called Dr. Abu Safiya back and dressed him in white prison clothes in front of the entire medical staff. He was then formally arrested and taken into their custody, while the rest of us were allowed to leave."
People worldwide have sounded the alarm over officials' mixed messages about the missing hospital director—including Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard, who on Thursday urged Israeli authorities to "urgently disclose" his location and said that he should be considered a victim of enforced disappearance, "and as such at great risk of torture and ill-treatment."
Following CNN's Friday reporting, Callamard reiterated her call for Abu Safiya's release. She also highlighted how, under his leadership, the Gaza hospital "played an indispensable role in treating children suffering from malnutrition and dehydration-related issues," and "received those wounded from a series of Israeli attacks on starving people as they waited for flour trucks, known as flour massacres.
From last February to October, Callamard said, "Dr. Abu Safiya was the go-to source for human rights and humanitarian organizations investigating the situation of the healthcare sector in north Gaza and the impact of the mixture of disease and hunger on children in particular, providing accurate, nonsensationalist, and credible information, coordinating with international health organizations, providing media briefings, all whilst obviously working as a dedicated pediatrician."
The human rights leader further emphasized that the IDF's unsubstantiated allegations about the hospital director and Hamas are relatively recent. She asserted that "Dr. Abu Safiya's unlawful detention is emblematic of the broader attacks on the healthcare sector in Gaza and Israel's attempts to annihilate it. It is part and parcel of Israel's genocidal intent and genocidal acts—meant to inflict conditions of life CALCULATED TO BRING ABOUT DESTRUCTION OF PALESTINIANS."
"Dr. Abu Safiya has been acting as a leading voice for the healthcare sector in the north of Gaza since October 2024 and refusing to abandon the hospital and his patients," Callamard noted. "He has stood against Israel's genocidal act and his arrest along with that of [hundreds] of Palestinian medical staff further provides evidence of genocidal intent."
"None of the medical staff abducted by Israeli forces since November 2023 from Gaza during raids on hospitals and clinics has been charged or put before a trial; those released after enduring unimaginable torture were never charged and did not stand trial," she added. "Those still detained remain held without charges or trial under inhumane conditions and at risk of torture."
According to PHRI, "Since October 2023, Israel has arrested thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, including 230 doctors."
"The whereabouts and fate of many remain unknown, and requests for their location remain unanswered for many months," the group said Thursday. "In some cases, only thanks to the persistence of human rights organizations, information has been provided regarding the whereabouts of some of the missing. In some cases, it was revealed that the missing individuals died while in military or prison service custody."
Drop Site News reported Friday that the IDF ordered the "evacuation of al-Awda Hospital in north Gaza, warning that those who remain by 3:00 pm will face death or bombing," and pointed out that "around 65 healthcare workers and 30 patients are currently at the hospital."
In a Friday statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the United States, demanded action from the U.S. government, which has given Israel billions of dollars in weapons support as it has waged an assault on Gaza that's led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
"The Biden administration, which is a full partner in Israel's genocide, must act to secure the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and to end the far-right Israeli government's systematic assault on hospitals and medical personnel in Gaza," said CAIR. "Israeli attacks on medical facilities, its daily slaughter of Palestinian civilians, and its forced starvation of an entire population are clearly part of the overall genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza."
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New Year, Same Old Wars
War is humanity’s cancer. Its seeming inevitability is ensconced in the global military budget. Can we ever stop waging it?
Jan 03, 2025
I welcome in the new year with a sense of abstract helplessness, as the headlines continue to bring us dead children, bombed hospitals, torture, rape and, of course, ever more “self-defense” (sometimes known as genocide).
From my safe, secure office space I absorb the daily news—from Gaza, from all across the planet–with a whiplash of guilt and naivete. What the hell do I know what it feels like to have my house, or my tent, bombed, to see my children die, to have no access to water, let alone healthcare? Is it enough to comfortably empathize with the collateral damage of this world at war?
No, no, no, it’s not.
This is just the way things are. It’s OK to kill—you just have to do so within certain rules.
But I empathize nonetheless, and shake to my depths with an incredulity that never goes away: “As if the relentless bombing and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the one sanctuary where Palestinians should have felt safe in fact became a death trap.”
The words are those of Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, quoted in a recent U.N. report about Israel’s ongoing devastation of Palestinian hospitals and its virtually total destruction of the occupied territory’s healthcare system, including the arrest—the abduction—of hundreds of doctors and other medical professionals, who often wind up being tortured and sometimes murdered.
The U.N. report was released “just days after the last functioning major healthcare facility in northern Gaza, Kama Adwan Hospital, was taken out of service after a raid by Israeli military forces, leaving the population of North Gaza with almost no access to adequate health care,” according to U.N. News:
Staff and patients were forced to flee or were taken into custody, with many reports of torture and ill-treatment. The director of the hospital was taken into custody, and his fate and whereabouts are unknown.
During the period covered by the report, there were at least 136 strikes on at least 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities, claiming significant casualties among doctors, nurses, medics, and other civilians, and causing significant damage, if not complete destruction of civilian infrastructure.
It’s virtually impossible to absorb news like this without first reducing it to an abstraction. This is something that’s happening “over there” somewhere, to people I don’t know. And soon enough the world itself—the world in which we all live—is mostly an abstraction... an entity separated by borders. I can read about terrible things going on in distant places, but my sense of actual connection to them is missing.
The U.N. News story proceeded to point out, “The protection of hospitals during warfare is paramount and must be respected by all sides, at all times.”
And here’s where my internal alarm went off. I have no disagreement with the point of the above sentence, but there’s something missing. Something crucial. Its basic point is this: When you’re waging war, hey, you still have to obey certain rules, e.g., don’t bomb hospitals without a really, really good reason. If you do, you’ve done something bad. You’ve committed a war crime.
It’s not simply that acts of war are wrapped snugly in legalese, but that war itself—in the context that births the term “war crime”—is not questioned or morally challenged. War simply exists. It’s a transcultural moral certainty. It’s part and parcel of civilization itself. Various social entities across the planet are bound to disagree or get annoyed with one another from time to time, and when they do—what choice do they have?—they go to war. This is just the way things are. It’s OK to kill—you just have to do so within certain rules. And mostly those rules apply to the loser, not the winner. Certainly this is true in retrospect.
And suddenly the sense of abstraction I was feeling begins to shatter. The concept of war instantly turns life itself into an abstraction. No matter that religions (see Genesis 1:27) all seem to acknowledge the preciousness of human life... of life itself. Most religions are also the first to send their troops—or, nowadays, their tanks and bombers—into battle.
A year ago I wrote:
We—by which I mean most of humanity—are still playing with the so-called ‘just war theory,’ the intellectual justification for war dating back to St. Augustine and the early centuries of the Common Era.
You know, violence is morally neutral—and thus, when the cause is just and sacred, go for it! Kill the non-believers... The neutrality of violence can be used by anyone in a position of power.
And, oh yeah, before you open fire, before you start killing, you have to take a spiritual step directly into the process: You have to define, and then dehumanize, the enemy. Once that happens, let her rip! The only thing stopping you now are the so-called rules of war, which allegedly protect innocent civilians and keep the whole thing reasonable. What a joke. Violence is poisonously addictive and easily expands—anywhere and everywhere.
War, as I have noted, is humanity’s cancer. Its seeming inevitability is ensconced in the global military budget. We have a few thousand nukes ready to go (“if necessary”) and thus the power to destroy all life on Planet Earth, aka, ourselves. Isn’t it time to start rethinking this potential Armageddon?
We are capable of creating peace! Most of us want it, at least for ourselves, our loved ones, our community, and country. We just don’t know what it is—and no, it’s not some cliché of perfect harmony. But it begins with the only rule of war that is necessary: It must never be waged again.
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What Lies Behind Israel’s War on Gaza Hospitals?
By targeting hospitals—essential lifelines in a besieged region—Israel not only deepens the humanitarian crisis but also sends a chilling message: no space, not even those dedicated to saving lives, is off-limits.
Jan 02, 2025
The recent Israeli raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital, or KAH, the only partially operating hospital in northern Gaza, is the latest phase of Israel’s egregious disregard for international humanitarian law and the sanctity of medical facilities. This audacious act highlights the alarming impunity with which Israel conducts its war of genocide in Gaza, and further aggravate the suffering in Gaza.
In attacking KAH, Israel resorted to the same discredited lies used to justify its assault on al-Shifa Hospital in November 2023, falsely alleging that Hamas operated a command center beneath the facility. This fabricated story has long been employed as a pretext to target medical facilities across Gaza. During its raid on al-Shifa Hospital in November 2023, Israeli forces found no evidence of a military presence yet proceeded to arbitrarily destroy the hospital without justification.
Eyewitness accounts report that Israeli forces stormed KAH under the pretext of searching for individuals allegedly connected to militant groups. Hospital staff were forcibly removed from their posts, and several patients, including children, were left unattended during the raid. Patients and medical staff faced severe intimidation and arrest, critical care was forcibly disrupted as soldiers combed through wards and operating rooms, ultimately setting the hospital on fire after failing to uncover the alleged military infrastructure.
Western media, in particular, frequently report on Israeli atrocities as though they are inevitable natural disasters, devoid of human accountability or compassion.
Two days after setting KAH ablaze, Israel escalated its attacks on Gaza's medical infrastructure, killing seven civilians in a strike on al-Wafaa Hospital in Gaza City and shelling the nearby Ahli Baptist Hospital. Despite mounting evidence disproving its claims, Israel, unchallenged, repeated the same fabricated justification: that fighters were allegedly operating within the hospitals. This unsubstantiated template has become a routine pretext for targeting healthcare facilities, disregarding international laws designed to protect civilians and medical institutions during conflict.
Israel's disinformation regarding the presence of military targets within Gaza’s medical facilities continues to be reported unquestionably by Western media, despite a well-documented track record of inaccuracies and history of falsehoods. This uncritical reporting not only undermines journalistic integrity but also perpetuates misleading narratives, often downplaying or outright ignoring Israeli crimes. By omitting the broader context of occupation, two-decade blockade, and systemic oppression, these media platforms contribute to a distorted representation of the reality on the ground. Western media, in particular, frequently report on Israeli atrocities as though they are inevitable natural disasters, devoid of human accountability or compassion. This approach not only erases the agency behind these tragedies but also dehumanizes Palestinian lives, reducing them to mere statistics.
The failure to keenly examine and challenge Israel's repeated falsehoods reflects a blatant bias in Western journalism. By granting disproportionate weight to Israeli perspectives while sidelining Palestinian voices, these outlets perpetuate stereotypes and reinforce systemic racism. This one-sided, remote reporting on Gaza undermines the principles of journalistic integrity and fuels global indifference to the plight of the civilians. The lack of accountability for such biased coverage underscores the need for a more equitable and truthful approach by reporting directly from inside the war zone.
The targeting and subsequent destruction of hospitals is not random but part of a broader, systematic pattern of military violence against all aspects of civilian life in Gaza.
The raid on KAH is not an isolated incident but a manifestation of a broader military policy aimed at inflicting maximum pain on the people of Gaza. Already deprived of food, water, power, and adequate medical supplies due to Israel’s blockade, the timing of the raid on the only partially functioning hospital in northern Gaza, is emblematic of a systematic strategy to render the region uninhabitable.
The international community’s tepid response to such blatant violations has emboldened Israel to act with impunity. Despite clear evidence of war crimes, accountability remains elusive. The lack of meaningful action from global powers and institutions undermines the credibility of international law and signals to Israel that it can evade consequences.
Hospitals, including military hospitals, are recognized as neutral spaces under international law, protected from military aggression to ensure the uninterrupted provision of critical care during times of war. The United Nations has both a moral and legal obligation to uphold and enforce Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which explicitly prohibits attacks on medical facilities. Anything less would be a betrayal of the principles that underpin international humanitarian law and a failure to stop war crimes.
The genocidal war on Gaza is not merely a regional issue; it is a moral litmus test for the global community. Every bomb dropped, every home destroyed, and every life lost in Gaza is a stain on humanity’s conscience. The international community must confront this genocide with the urgency and resolve it demands. Failing to act not only condemns Gaza’s population to further suffering but also erodes the very foundations of international law and human decency.
The international community’s response for the Israeli genocide in Gaza has been woefully inadequate. While some countries issue lukewarm condemnations, others, like the United States, provide unwavering support for Israel to “finish the job.” This double standard exposes the hypocrisy of the U.S. and Western powers that, ostensibly, champion human rights and international law in other contexts while turning a blind eye to the injustice in Palestine.
The Israeli attacks on medical facilities reveal a deliberate intent to coerce the population into forced “voluntary” ethnic cleansing. The targeting and subsequent destruction of hospitals is not random but part of a broader, systematic pattern of military violence against all aspects of civilian life in Gaza. This includes hospitals, schools, shelters, religious centers, agricultural infrastructure, water wells, bakeries, and aid distribution networks. These calculated assaults are designed to dismantle the foundations of daily life, exacerbate the humanitarian crisis, and strip the population of even the most basic means of survival.
The international community’s conspicuous silence and failure to hold Israel accountable have emboldened such actions, creating an environment where impunity reigns. By targeting hospitals—essential lifelines in a besieged region—Israel not only deepens the humanitarian crisis but also sends a chilling message: no space, not even those dedicated to saving lives, is off-limits.
Israeli war crimes in Gaza cannot be ignored. The world must respond—not with platitudes or empty gestures, but with concrete actions to ensure that those responsible for this ongoing genocide are held accountable.
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Allies Demand Release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya From Notorious Israeli Prison
"Bombing of hospitals and kidnapping, torturing, and killing doctors and healthcare workers is illegal and immoral and a crime according to the Genocide Convention," asserted Doctors for Humanity.
Dec 30, 2024
Human rights defenders in the global medical community and beyond are demanding Israel immediately release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Gaza's obliterated Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was seized by Israeli troops on Saturday and is believed to be imprisoned at a notorious detention center where dozens of detainees have died and where torture, rape, and other abuses have been reported.
"We appeal to world leaders, to the global medical community, and to all who value humanity: Help us save our friend, our colleague, and a true healer," Dr. Karameh Kuemmerle, a Boston-based pediatric neurologist and co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide, told Common Dreams on Monday.
"Put all kinds of pressure to ensure his release so he can return to his patients, who need him desperately, and to his family, who cannot endure this pain," Kuemmerle added. "We demand a reality that respects life, respects human rights, and respects every man, woman, and child for humanity's sake."
Doctors for Humanity—a coalition of groups including Global Health Coalition, Doctors Against Genocide, and Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations—said in a statement Monday, "We the medical community demand the immediate release of Dr. Abu Safiya and an immediate end to the bombing of hospitals and targeted kidnapping and killing of healthcare workers in Gaza."
"Bombing of hospitals and kidnapping, torturing and killing doctors and healthcare workers is illegal and immoral and a crime according to the Genocide Convention," Doctors for Humanity added.
Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and co-founder the Illinois-based NGO MedGlobal, for whom Safiya works as lead Gaza physician, said over the weekend that "Dr. Abu Safiya has dedicated his life to protecting the health and lives of children in Gaza, providing care under conditions no medical professional should have to endure."
"His arrest is not only unjust—it is a violation of international humanitarian law, which upholds the protection of medical personnel in conflict zones," the group added. "We urgently call for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Abu Safiya."
Dr. Yipeng Ge—who in November 2023 was suspended from his medical residency at the University of Ottawa for social media posts critical of Israel's "settler-colonialism" and "apartheid upon Palestinian people"—called for Abu Safiya's "immediate release," as well as "protection of hospitals and medical workers in Gaza" and "an end to the genocide" there.
My name is Dr. Yipeng Ge. I am a family doctor. I am calling for the immediate release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. He was abducted by the Israeli forces. I am calling for protection of hospitals and medical workers in Gaza. And an end to the genocide. #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya
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— yipeng ge (@yipengge.bsky.social) December 30, 2024 at 7:21 AM
Amnesty International secretary-general Agnès Callamard hailed Abu Safiya as "the voice of Gaza's decimated health sector," who pleaded "for the protection of his hospital" while "working under inhumane conditions, including following the killing of his son" by an Israeli drone strike at the hospital gates earlier this year.
"We at Amnesty are extremely concerned over the fate and well-being of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya," Callamard said. "He must be released immediately and unconditionally."
Recently released former detainees at the Sde Teiman prison in Israel's Negev Desert said Abu Safiya is being held there, and that the Israeli security forces working there—some of whom stand accused of gang-raping a prisoner—are treating captured Palestinian doctors "really badly."
Idrees Abu Safiya, Abu Safiya's son, told The Guardian on Monday that his father's leg was badly injured during the Israeli raid on the hospital.
"We are so worried, we haven't been able to sleep for three days because we didn't know until today where he is," Idrees told the British newspaper.
Relatives of Abu Safiya told CNN that "Sde Teiman is known for brutality and torture, we can't imagine what our father is going through in that place and if he is well or not, warm or cold… hungry or in pain."
The last photo of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, detained after refusing to abandon his colleagues and patients. In just one image, we see both the power of Palestinian humanity and the moral weakness of all those complicit in genocide. End all arms sales to Israel, now.
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— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn.bsky.social) December 29, 2024 at 3:53 AM
Kuemmerle told Common Dreams: "What is striking about Dr. Abu Safiya is his extraordinary composure, kindness, and unwavering dedication, even in the face of unimaginable hardships. We have come to know his bravery, dedication, humane professionalism, and gentle manners. We are terrified for his fate, knowing all too well as Palestinians the horrors that await our doctors in these torture camps."
Israel claims that Abu Safiya—who, despite the killing of his son and an injury caused by shrapnel from a November 23 Israeli attack on Kamal Adwan, refused to stop working at the hospital—is a suspected Hamas terrorist. That's a common allegation made by Israeli officials, who also often claim that hospitals are used as Hamas command-and-control centers. These officials usually offer very little if any evidence to support their assertions.
"The lies that are being spread right now that [Abu Safiya] is really a Hamas colonel are lies to prevent what is happening right now, which is a global wave of outrage, and that global wave of outrage must grow so we, the global medical community, can stop the relentless attacks on healthcare workers and healthcare infrastructure," Dr. Rupa Marya, a University of California, San Francisco professor of medicine who's currently on paid suspension after questioning whether an Israeli student and likely Israel Defense Forces (IDF) veteran may have committed war crimes, told Common Dreams.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, hundreds of healthcare workers have been detained and more than 1,000 have been killed since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Critics accuse Israel of deliberately killing and wounding health workers.
The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor on Saturday published the testimonies of witnesses to alleged IDF war crimes during the Kamal Adwan raid, including "deliberate killings, field executions, as well as sexual and physical assaults on women and girls from medical teams and displaced women in the area."
Responding to Israeli attacks on hospitals and Abu Safiya's detention, Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns at London-based Medical Aid for Palestinians, said on the Bluesky social media platform Saturday that "our leaders must demand the immediate and safe release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and all detained Gaza health workers."
"Health workers are not a target," he added, "and impunity for Israel's destruction of Palestinian healthcare must end."
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UN Expert Urges Medical World to Cut Ties With Israel Amid Attacks on Gaza Hospitals
Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese condemned Israel's destruction of Gaza's healthcare system as "a critical tool of its ongoing genocide."
Dec 30, 2024
As Israeli forces stand accused of war crimes during attacks on multiple Gaza hospitals in recent days, Francesca Albanese—the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories—on Monday implored the global medical community to respond by cutting ties with Israel.
"I urge medical professionals worldwide to pursue the severance of all ties with Israel as a concrete way to forcefully denounce Israel's full destruction of the Palestinian healthcare system in Gaza, a critical tool of its ongoing genocide," Albanese wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Albanese amplified a post by Dr. Rupa Marya—one of the most vocal defenders of Palestinian human rights in the U.S. medical community—calling on Israeli forces to release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia.
Abu Safiya, who documented Israel's siege and attack on Kamal Adwan and who reported last week that nearly 50 people including five hospital staff members were killed by an Israel Defense Forces airstrike on a nearby apartment tower, was among dozens of other medical staffers abducted by IDF troops on Saturday.
After besieging and attacking the hospital for weeks, Israeli forces raided the facility and rounded up 240 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel claimed without evidence that Kamal Adwan was being used as a Hamas command center. With the facility shut down and badly damaged, critical patients and their caregivers were forced to evacuate to the nearby Indonesian Hospital.
The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor on Saturday published accounts from witnesses to alleged IDF war crimes during the Kamal Adwan raid, including "deliberate killings, field executions, as well as sexual and physical assaults on women and girls from medical teams and displaced women in the area."
CNN reported Monday that Abu Safiya is believed to be held at Sde Teiman, the notorious prison in Israel's Negev Desert where dozens of detainees have died and former inmates say many others have been tortured and raped. The IDF dubiously claimed that Abu Safiya is "suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative."
On Sunday, Israeli forces also attacked al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City, killing seven people, according to Gaza Civil Defense officials. Israel said the strike targeted Hamas militants, without providing further information. Anadolu also reported an IDF artillery attack on the Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday said it was "appalled" by the Kamal Adwan raid and called out the "systematic dismantling of the health system" in Gaza by Israeli forces.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus—who on Thursday survived a deadly Israeli airstrike on Sanaa International Airport in Yemen—on Sunday condemned and demanded an end to IDF attacks on Gaza hospitals.
"Hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlegrounds and the health system is under severe threat," Tedros said on X. "We repeat: Stop attacks on hospitals. People in Gaza need access to healthcare. Humanitarians need access to provide health aid. Cease-fire!"
On Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement that "repeated hostilities in and around hospitals have obliterated the healthcare system in northern Gaza, putting civilians at an unacceptably grave risk of going without lifesaving care."
"The influx of patients, caregivers, and displaced civilians seeking shelter creates a situation that medical personnel cannot solve," ICRC continued. "The increasingly dangerous situation comes in addition to more than a year of insufficient provision of medical equipment and supplies, fuel, food, and specialized healthcare capacities."
"ICRC reiterates its urgent call for the respect and protection of medical facilities in line with international humanitarian law," the organization added. "This protection is a legal obligation and a moral imperative to preserve human life."
Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a massive attack on Israel, at least 45,484 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, with nearly 120,000 others wounded or missing, according to local health officials. Israel's "complete siege" of Gaza has also forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened most of the enclave's population. Gaza officials reported five infants, a child, and a nurse have died due to cold temperatures and exposure in recent days.
The International Court of Justice is currently weighing a genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa and supported by numerous other countries and rights groups.
Palestine defenders in the international medical community are planning a "call in sick from genocide" global day of action on January 6. Organizers are calling on members of healthcare worker unions to push for a strike, and for doctors and others to organize free clinics that day.
Marya, a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco who is currently on paid suspension after questioning whether an incoming student from Israel—where IDF service is near-universal—took part in war crimes in Gaza, posted Monday in support of the day of action.
"It is absolutely essential that when we see any entity, any group, destroying healthcare, and using the destruction of healthcare as a way to accelerate the annihilation of a people, as Israel is doing, it is absolutely urgent that the global medical community calls to stop this," Marya told Common Dreams on Monday.
"And we stop it through demanding an arms embargo, demanding unrestricted humanitarian aid into Gaza, and demanding the end to all institutional relationships between our medical institutions and Israeli institutions," she continued. "What we need to do right now is to stop the normalization of genocide, enablement, and perpetration in our spaces of healthcare."
"What we're seeing is genocide... accelerated through targeting the people who are supposed to heal," Marya added. "The healthcare system in Gaza has been targeted in order to accelerate the annihilation of the Palestinian people. And if the global healthcare community does not stand up right now, this will be the future of all wars."
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Israeli Raid Puts Last Hospital in Besieged Northern Gaza Out of Service
The hospital's director was detained by Israeli forces and his whereabouts are unknown.
Dec 28, 2024
The World Health Organization on Saturday demanded the protection of healthcare facilities in Gaza as it announced that Friday's Israeli raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza put the facility entirely out of service—leaving the besieged region without any major health centers in operation.
WHO said parts of the hospital were badly burned and damaged, including a laboratory and surgical units.
On Saturday, 12 patients and a healthcare worker were reportedly forced to evacuate to Indonesian Hospital, which is not functioning, and "some people were reportedly stripped and forced to walk toward southern Gaza," said WHO.
Fifteen patients who had been in critical care were forced to transfer to Indonesian Hospital on Friday, leaving medical experts concerned about their health conditions at the damaged facility.
"The movement and treatment of these critical patients under such conditions pose grave risks to their survival," said the agency. "WHO is deeply concerned for their wellbeing, as well as for the Kamal Adwan Hospital director who has been reportedly detained during the raid. WHO lost contact with him since the raid began."
Gaza health officials said Saturday that Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, had been taken by Israeli forces to "a detention center for interrogation" along with dozens of other hospital staff.
"With Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals entirely out of service, and Al-Awda Hospital barely able to function, and severely damaged due to recent airstrikes, the healthcare lifeline for those in North Gaza is reaching a breaking point."
Israel raided Kamal Adwan claiming that the hospital served as a "Hamas terrorist stronghold," but did not provide evidence for the allegation. Health authorities in Gaza strenuously denied the claim.
The U.S.-backed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed Saturday that Abu Safia was among those who had been detained but did not say where he'd been taken.
"With Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals entirely out of service, and Al-Awda Hospital barely able to function, and severely damaged due to recent airstrikes, the healthcare lifeline for those in North Gaza is reaching a breaking point," said WHO. "WHO calls for urgently ensuring that hospitals in North Gaza can be supported to become functional again. Hospitals have once again become battlegrounds, reminiscent of the destruction of the health system in Gaza City earlier this year."
The Council on American Islamic Relations called on the Biden administration to demand the release of Abu Safia, who was reportedly beaten before he was detained.
"Israel's ongoing genocidal assault on medical personnel, patients, and hospitals must be condemned by all people of conscience who value international laws and norms," said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the group. "The Biden administration, which is complicit with Israel's genocide, must call for an end to Israeli attacks on medical facilities throughout Gaza and must demand the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya."
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