Doctors in Unite wish to express our grave concern for the welfare of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza, who was detained and beaten by Israeli military forces on 28 December 2024. We call for his immediate release along with the other staff from the Kamal Adwan Hospital who were also detained.
Over many weeks Dr Abu Safiya issued repeated appeals to the world by video from his mobile phone, calling for help to stop the Israeli siege and assault of the hospital, which lasted over 80 days. This included drone strikes with bombs and shooting of staff and patients, tank fire, remotely detonated crate bombs, as well as a total blockade of food, water, fuel and medicines, and the destruction of the water supply, fuel stores and oxygen facilities. Dr Abu Safiya has become a household figure worldwide and a symbol of Palestinian healthcare workers’ dedication to their patients and the people of Gaza. The IDF finally invaded the hospital last week, set fire to multiple departments in the hospital and drove the staff and patients out, detaining dozens of staff, stripping them half-naked.
Dr Abu Safiya, like very many Palestinian health care workers, refused to leave his patients, and remained to the bitter end. He is now held hostage and likely being tortured by the Israeli military, like many of his colleagues before him. We know that torture is routine for Palestinians in Israeli detention, thanks to harrowing reports like “Welcome to Hell – the Israeli prison system as a network of torture camps” by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
Israel has killed over 1,000 Palestinian health care workers since Oct 7 2023, and illegally detained over 300, with dozens more missing. Dr Adnan Al Bursh, Head of Orthopaedics at Al-Shifa Hospital, was detained for 4 months and tortured (likely raped) to death in April 2024. Dr Muhammad Abu-Salmiya, Director of Al-Shifa Hospital, was detained and tortured for seven months, released in July 2024, having been tried 3 times in jail, with no charges. Dr Iyad Al-Rantisi, Director of the Maternity Department at Kamal Adwan Hospital, died under torture in November 2023, seven days after being detained, news of which the Israelis hid for 7 months before informing anyone.
Kamal Adwan was the last functioning hospital in north Gaza, pushing the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse, leaving tens of thousands of starving, injured and sick people effectively without any health care. This is part of the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from the north by the Israeli military, a brutal campaign which has killed thousands and forcibly displaced many more. At the same time, the genocide on the rest of the Gaza strip continues, with daily bombings of shelters, schools and refugee camps, killing and wounding dozens of people every day.
We call for the immediate release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and all healthcare workers detained by the Israeli military, and for the immediate cessation of attacks on hospitals, and the provision of food, medicines, fresh water and fuel to all health facilities in Gaza.
We call on all the Royal Colleges, the BMA and other health institutions in the UK to join in this call. It is time to end your silence, and speak out against the killing, torture and disappearance of medical colleagues in Gaza. We ask you, if you do not speak now, then when? What will it take for you to find your voice and condemn these crimes against humanity, including against our own medical colleagues, unfolding before our very eyes?
Other medical associations have done so. On 27 December, the Italian Medical Association condemned events at Kamal Adwan Hospital, calling for the protection of health workers and respect for the Geneva Conventions. When will UK medical institutions do the same? On 30 December, the Colombian Medical Federation issued a statement saying “The Colombian Medical Federation strongly rejects the actions that violate human rights committed against health personnel in Gaza, including the kidnapping and mistreatment of Dr. Husam Abu Safiya and his team. These professionals have dedicated their lives to saving others, even in extreme conditions.” Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territories stated on 30 December, “I urge medical professionals worldwide to sever all ties with Israel as a powerful statement against its complete destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system—a key instrument of its ongoing genocide”.
As doctors, medical neutrality means we treat everyone in war no matter which side they are on. It does not mean we should remain silent in the face of crimes against humanity, especially perpetrated against fellow doctors, while comfortably observing events from far away. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu famously said “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Doctors in Unite 