Gaza, MINA – Amnesty International on Monday urged Israeli authorities to release the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, voicing “extreme” concern for his welfare.
“We at Amnesty are deeply concerned about the fate and well-being of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital who was detained by Israeli forces along with others during a raid on the hospital on 27 December,” Secretary-General Agnes Callamard wrote in X, as quoted by Anadolu Agency.
“He must be released immediately and unconditionally,” Callamard urged.
She noted that Safiya has been a spokesperson for Gaza’s devastated health sector for months and that she has “been pleading for the protection of her hospital and working in inhumane conditions, including after the killing of her son.”
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On Friday, Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, located in the northern city of Beit Lahia, setting fire to much of the medical facility and forcing patients and displaced civilians to flee. The raid, the latest in a series of attacks on health facilities, left Kamal Adwan, the last remaining major hospital in the area, inoperable, according to the WHO.
“Since the start of its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has detained hundreds of Palestinian health workers from Gaza without charge or trial,” Callamard said. “Health workers have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment and are being held incommunicado.”
She stressed that hospitals and health workers “are not targets.”
“Israel must immediately release all Palestinians arbitrarily detained, including health workers.”
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The international community, especially Israel’s allies, “must act to end Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” she concluded. (T/RE1/P2)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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