On Thursday, two UN rapporteurs renewed their demand for the release of the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safiya, who was arrested by the Israeli occupation army about a week ago.
This came in a joint statement by the UN Rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese.
In the midst of the ongoing Israeli massacres in northern Gaza, the name of Doctor Abu Safiya shone as a symbol of humanity and steadfastness in the face of the genocide that the Strip has been subjected to for about 15 months.
In their statement, Mofokeng and Albanese stressed the need to end Israel’s current attack on Gaza, especially on medical facilities on the one hand, and to ensure the release of Abu Safiya and all arbitrarily detained health workers on the other hand.
The statement added, “We are deeply concerned about the fate of Abu Safiya, another doctor who was kidnapped and arbitrarily detained by the occupation forces, and the reason this time was his defying evacuation orders and (refusing) to leave his patients and colleagues.”
The statement stated that Israel’s blatant attack on the right to health in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, more than a year after the genocide, leads to new levels of impunity.
The two experts shed light on some of the tragedies that Abu Safiya endured as a result of the current Israeli genocide in Gaza, noting that a son of his was killed in front of him, and that the doctor was injured while performing his duty, and despite that, he continued to provide care to patients.
On Tuesday, Mofokeng, via the X platform, called on Israel to release Abu Safiya and stop the genocide in Gaza.
A day earlier, Albanese made the same demand, and through the
Last Friday, the Israeli army stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, set it on fire, put it out of service, and arrested more than 350 people inside it, including its director, Dr. Abu Safiya.
