On December 27, 2024, the Israeli Defense Forces completed their months-long siege of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last functioning hospital in north Gaza, raiding and burning down the facility, and conducting deliberate killings, field executions, and acts of sexual assault and humiliation against medical personnel, patients, and other civilians. As part of this criminal rampage, Israeli forces abducted the hospital's director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, along with hundreds of other hospital staff and patients. After standing up against 447 days of genocide and 83 days of complete extermination and ethnic cleansing in north Gaza, Dr. Abu Safiya now faces an even more terrifying future, experienced by other medical professionals in Gaza: torture and eventual execution by Israeli forces.

For months, Dr. Abu Safiya - who holds a Kazakhstani passport and could have evacuated the Gaza Strip long ago - remained at Kamal Adwan, standing alongside his staff and patients as the facility was bombarded, raided, and denied basic medical supplies and humanitarian aid, including food, by Israel. Starting in early​ October, Dr. Abu Safiya issued repeated​ calls to the international community, on a near daily basis, detailing the inhumane conditions Israel had created and pleading for help. Some of these calls were published as an edited collection in The New York Times in early December. 

To punish him for this dedication to his patients and try and force him to abandon his post, Israel assassinated Dr. Abu Safiya's fifteen-year-old son in late October as the boy stood at Kamal Adwan's entrance. A few weeks later, Israel targeted Dr. Abu Safiya himself while he was inside the hospital, injuring him critically. 

These attacks against Dr. Abu Safiya and Kamal Adwan Hospital are part of Israel's well-established practice - as documented by countless​ international​ organizations - of destroying Gaza's health care system and otherwise creating conditions of life calculated to destroy the Palestinian population in whole or in part, which is an act of genocide. Israel has also attacked and killed those trying to protect and preserve Gaza's medical system, including aid workers and humanitarians like Mahmoud Almadhoun, who provided food and water to Kamal Adwan, as it was being besieged. Israel assassinated al-Madhoun on November 30, 2024 because of his life-saving work in north Gaza.

International law prohibits deliberate or willful attacks against medical facilities and personnel, as well as the wounded and sick, and obligates parties to a conflict to affirmatively​ protect these facilities and persons from harm. In this case, as in others, Israel has attempted to skirt these obligations by claiming that Kamal Adwan, its medical professionals, and patients are part of Hamas, affiliated with Hamas, or being used by Hamas for military purposes, while providing no credible evidence to support their claims. In Dr. Abu Safiya's case, Israeli forces allowed him to remain in the hospital for months, after detaining patients and other medical personnel at the hospital in late October. Now, Israel is claiming, against all reason and without any proof, that, all this time, Dr. Abu Safiya was a Hamas operative and that his detention and abduction are justified. Only a few months ago, Israel used a similar manufactured logic to justify the detention, torture, and killing of another one of Gaza's dedicated and beloved doctors, Adnan al-Bursh.

We call on the international community, particularly the United States, to use its influence and authority to force Israel to immediately release Dr. Abu Safiya and other medical personnel and patients detained at Kamal Adwan. We further call on the international community to take steps to ensure that Kamal Adwan is re-opened, that its staff is allowed to return, and that it is furnished with the aid and necessary supplies to serve the sick, injured, and dying in north Gaza. 

Healthcare is not a crime. Deliberately attacking hospitals, medical staff, and patients is.

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