Gaza health director demands urgent medical intervention for detained paediatrician
Rights groups warn the former hospital director is in imminent danger, while reports indicate Israeli forces continue to breach ceasefire terms and restrict aid delivery.
Dr Muneer al-Boursh, director general of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, has issued an urgent appeal for international intervention to save the life of Dr Hussam Abu Safia, a Palestinian paediatrician and former director of Kamal Adwan Hospital. Abu Safia has been held by Israel since December 2024 without charge under unlawful combatant laws, a legal framework that permits indefinitely renewable detention. Al-Boursh reported that Abu Safia has sustained injuries to his eye, head, and chest, citing allegations of assault and a critical lack of medical care in his detention facility.
The appeal coincides with mounting concerns from human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, which have warned that Abu Safia’s life is in imminent danger. His lawyer reported new signs of beatings and torture after visiting him last month. Israel’s Supreme Court previously rejected an appeal for Abu Safia’s release in June. Al-Boursh stated that the doctor’s condition demands an urgent, independent, and comprehensive medical examination, holding the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for his safety.
Abu Safia led Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the last functioning facilities in northern Gaza, through an 85-day siege before Israeli forces raided the site and detained him on December 27, 2024. Al-Boursh described the situation as agonising, noting that a medical professional who remained with his patients during the bleakest circumstances is now behind bars. The ministry chief called on the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, and the UN to take immediate action to secure Abu Safia’s freedom and ensure he receives necessary treatment.
The detention appeal occurs against a backdrop of severe deterioration in Gaza’s health sector, nearly ten months into a ceasefire that correspondents report is being breached on a near-daily basis. Israeli forces have carried out extensive demolition operations and fired on Palestinians in multiple locations, including north of Khan Younis and near the Wadi Gaza Bridge. Israeli-controlled “yellow” zones now cover more than 70 percent of the Gaza Strip, confining residents to less than 30 percent of the territory, most of which has been destroyed.
Aid delivery has fallen significantly, with only 250 of the expected 600 daily trucks entering Gaza. Nasser Hospital reported that three to four patients are dying daily due to shortages of medicines and medical supplies. Last week, Israeli forces destroyed a medical supply warehouse near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, affecting nearly half a million people. Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN human rights office in the occupied Palestinian territories, stated that Gaza’s health system is among the hardest hit and that recovery will take generations.
Since the ceasefire began last October, the death toll has reached 1,257, with 4,131 wounded. In total, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. Al-Boursh urged the international community to address the broader collapse of the health infrastructure, warning that malnutrition, collapsing shelter, and lack of safe drinking water cannot be resolved while the entry of dual-use materials remains blocked.
