ReutersIsrael has confirmed that it has arrested Gaza hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya after he previously told a local NGO that it was unaware of his case, raising concerns for his health.
A statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said he was “currently being investigated by the Israeli military” personally.
The statement did not provide an explanation for the confusion but reiterated that he was accused of being a “terrorist” and “having a position” in Hamas, the Palestinian armed group fighting Israel in Gaza.
Dr Abu Safiya was arrested when Israeli forces forced patients and medical staff out of the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza last Friday, saying the facility was a “terrorist haven for Hamas”.
On Thursday the IDF told Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) that it had “no signs of arrest or detention of the person in question”.
PHRI filed a petition with the High Court of Justice of Israel on Thursday, seeking to reveal the whereabouts of Dr. Abu Safiya. It said the court gave the IDF a week to do so.
Meanwhile the head of Amnesty Agnès Callamard said the Israeli authorities must “immediately disclose his whereabouts”.
He said Israel had arrested “hundreds of Palestinian health workers from Gaza without charge or trial” and said they had been “tortured and ill-treated and held in unknown cells”.
Israel denies abusing prisoners.
Earlier, Dr Abu Safiya’s family told BBC Arabic that they believed he was being held at the Sde Teiman military camp in southern Israel, where the Israeli army had taken many prisoners from Gaza for interrogation.
Whistleblowers have previously told the BBC and other international media that very difficult conditions for detainees There. Israel said all prisoners there are being held “carefully and properly”.
The IDF ordered everyone inside Kamal Adwan Hospital to leave last Friday morning, giving the hospital about 15 minutes to move patients and staff out of the yard, medical staff told the BBC.
Beit Lahia, where the hospital is located, has been under a tight Israeli blockade imposed on the northern parts of Gaza since October. The UN said the area is “almost completely under siege” as Israeli forces severely block aid access to an area where about 10,000 to 15,000 people remain.
ReutersOn Saturday, the IDF said it had arrested 240 soldiers from Kamal Adwan and said Dr. Abu Safiya was among the medical workers questioned.
Video footage shows him walking to an Israeli armored vehicle before being questioned. An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the arrest that day, and said the doctor had been transferred for questioning.
Dr. Abu Safiya was arrested by Israeli forces during a raid on the hospital in October, but was later released. In that Israeli campaign, Dr. Abu Safiya’s 15-year-old son was killed in an airstrike. Later pictures from that day showed him leading his son’s funeral prayers in the hospital courtyard.
Israel’s attacks on health facilities in Gaza have drawn widespread criticism.
On Tuesday the UN Human Rights Office said that Israeli attacks on hospitals and surrounding areas have continued Gaza’s health care system comes to “the brink of total collapse” and raised serious concerns about war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Israeli delegation in Geneva said the Israeli army was acting in accordance with international law and “will not target innocent people”.
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas following the group’s unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were captured.
More than 45,580 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the health ministry in the area.
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