U.N.’s World Health Organization calls on Israel to free Gaza hospital chief as death toll tops 45,500
Geneva — The head of the United Nations World Health Organization on Monday called for the immediate release of Hossam Abu Safiyeh, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the war-torn Gaza Strip. Detained by the Israeli military after a major attack On the facilities. The World Health Organization said the Friday-Saturday attack on Beit Lahiya’s Kamal Adwan left the last major health facility in northern Gaza without services and empty of patients.
“Gaza’s hospitals are once again a battlefield; Health systems are under serious threat“, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus say on X. “The Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza ceased services following an attack that forced the evacuation of patients and staff and the detention of its director. His whereabouts are unknown. We call for his immediate release.”
The Israeli military said on Sunday that its forces killed about 20 Palestinian militants and arrested “240 terrorists” in the raid, which it called one of Israel’s “largest operations” in the territory. . The Israeli military said it detained Abu Safiyeh on suspicion of being a Hamas militant. The military had no immediate comment when asked whether he had been transferred to Israeli territory for further interrogation.
Israeli officials have long accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields, deploying its weapons and fighters inside and underground in hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure. The group has long been designated a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States but has denied the accusations.
Tedros said patients in critical condition at Kamal Adwan Hospital had been transferred to an Indonesian hospital, also in northern Gaza, “which itself has become non-functional.”
“Amid the ongoing chaos in northern Gaza, WHO and partners today delivered essential medical and hygiene supplies, food and water to Indonesian hospitals and transferred 10 critically ill patients to Shifa Hospital,” he said. We urge Israel to ensure their health care needs and rights are upheld.”
He said seven patients and 15 nursing staff and health workers remained in the “severely damaged” Indonesian hospital “which does not have the capacity to provide care”.
“Al Ahli Hospital and Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital in Gaza City were also attacked today and both were damaged,” Tedros added. “We reiterate: stop attacks on hospitals. The people of Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarian Medical assistance is required.”
The London-based charity Amnesty International also called on Israel released Abu Safiyeh immediately and unconditionally, and said in a series of social media posts that the hospital director had become “the face of Gaza’s battered health sector.”
charity charged The Israeli military has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – a charge it has repeatedly reiterated and vehemently denied – and accused it of detaining “hundreds of Palestinian medical staff” without charge and subjecting them to “torture and Other abuses”.
Since October 6 this year, Israel’s operations in Gaza have mainly focused on the north, with officials saying that their ground and air offensive is aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping.
Health officials in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory said on Monday that the total number of deaths in Gaza from the Israeli offensive had risen to 45,541, with the health ministry saying 27 people had died in the past 24 hours alone.
The Defense Ministry said at least 108,338 people have been injured since Israel launched its offensive against Hamas. The war was launched in response to the Hamas terror attacks on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the militants killing approximately 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapping 251 others.
Khalil Ramsey Alkarut/Anadolu/Getty
After more than a year of war, cold winter temperatures have worsened the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. Medical staff in the enclave have reported babies dying from hypothermia in recent weeks.
Dr. Fida Al-Nady, a doctor at Khan Younis Nasser Hospital in the southern city, told CBS News last week that the hospital treats one to two cases of hypothermia per case. The hospital has not been functioning at full capacity since the Israeli attacks earlier this year. Today, the youngest patients are the most vulnerable.
“With the stress in our lives, many children are born prematurely, which makes them more susceptible to hypothermia,” Arnadi said.
