UN organizations called for the immediate release of Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya and the medical staff accompanying him, and described Gaza Strip hospitals as a death trap.
Amnesty International said that Dr. Abu Safiya was the voice of the affected health sector, and worked in inhumane conditions even after his son was assassinated.
The organization expressed its deep concern about the condition of Dr. Abu Safiya, and demanded that Israel release Abu Safiya.
The World Health Organization called on Israel to immediately release Abu Safiya, and said that hospitals in Gaza had once again become battlefields, and that the health system was under severe threat, and demanded an end to targeting hospitals.
In this context, the US State Department said that Washington is still collecting information regarding the status of Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya and the detained medical staff.
The Ministry added in a statement issued by the media office – yesterday, Monday – that it is following the news received regarding the arrest of medical staff from inside Kamal Adwan Hospital, in the northern Gaza Strip.
The statement called on all parties to respect the privacy of facilities such as hospitals, and to refrain from harming civilians and relief workers, accusing Hamas of exploiting civilian facilities for military purposes.
The statement said that Washington is very concerned about the number of civilian casualties as a result of the ongoing war in Gaza, indicating that it continues to warn Israel at the highest levels.
“Death trap”
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said that hospitals in the Gaza Strip have turned into a “death trap,” stressing the need to protect these facilities during the war.
He said, “As if the continuous bombing and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the only haven in which Palestinians should feel safe has become a death trap.”
A United Nations report said – today, Tuesday – that Israeli allegations about Palestinian factions using Gaza hospitals for military purposes are “ambiguous.”
The report stated that Israel has, to date, provided little information to prove its claims that Palestinian armed groups are using hospitals, and that these allegations are “vague and vague, and in some cases appear to contradict publicly available information.”
The report concluded that Israeli strikes on or near hospitals in the Gaza Strip left the health system in the Palestinian Strip on the brink of collapse, which disastrously affected the ability of Palestinians to access health and medical care.
Since the start of the war of extermination on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has been targeting the health sector in the Gaza Strip, bombing and besieging hospitals, threatening to evacuate them, and preventing the entry of medical supplies, especially in the areas north of the Gaza Strip, which it invaded again on the fifth of last October.
The most recent Israeli attack on the health system in Gaza was the storming of Kamal Adwan Hospital on December 27, 2024, setting it on fire, putting it out of service, and arresting more than 350 people who were inside it, including the medical staff, the wounded and sick, and Abu Safiya.
With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 153,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst disasters. Humanity in the world.