Campaign to Free Dr. Abu Safiya, Director of Hospital in Gaza

The Middle East Crisis Committee, Promoting Enduring Peace, Campaign to Free Dr. Abu Safiya

In the fall of 2024, the Israeli military decided to empty Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital. It bombarded parts of the facility and ordered it to be evacuated. The hospital director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, and his medical staff refused to leave.  Dr. Abu Safiya said, “I will stay inside my hospital until the last moment.” The attacks continued. His 15-year-old son Ibrahim was killed on hospital grounds by an Israeli drone. The doctor himself was seriously wounded in another attack inside the hospital. and suffered six shrapnel wounds to his leg. Finally, when it looked like the whole hospital would be leveled, Dr. Abu Safiya agreed to leave.

On Dec. 27, 2024, Dr. Abu Safiya and his remaining hospital staff surrendered to Israeli forces. By then, Kamal Adwan Hospital had been made inoperable by the IDF who threatened worse destruction. Dr. Abu Safiya has been in a series of Israeli prisons ever since. His attorney says he’s lost a third of his body weight and has suffered assault and beatings. He has not been charged with any crime but is being held under a dubious Israeli “Unlawful Combatants” provision. No evidence has been offered that he’s a combatant of any kind. Amnesty International calls for Dr. Abu Safiya’s release.

The Campaign to Free Dr. Abu Safiya was recently started in Connecticut by the Middle East Crisis Committee, Promoting Enduring Peace, and other organizations, and has composed an open letter calling on the United States government, which supplies Israel with armaments, intelligence, and full diplomatic backing, to insist that Dr. Abu Safiya be freed along with other medical staff from the former Kamal Adwan Hospital.

To see the letter and to sign on to it, please send an email to mail@thestruggle.org. For more information about Dr. Abu Safiya, see bit.ly/4sbdPwT.