{"id":578861,"date":"2026-08-08T20:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/578861\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:18:08","slug":"gaza-health-chief-urges-action-to-save-dr-abu-safia-before-its-too-late-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/578861\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza health chief urges action to \u2018save\u2019 Dr Abu Safia before it\u2019s too late | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The director general of Gaza\u2019s Ministry of Health has called for urgent action to \u201csave\u201d the life of detained Palestinian doctor Hussam Abu Safia<\/a> before it is \u201ctoo late\u201d.<\/p>\n

The paediatrician has been held by Israel since 2024 and \u201cserious concerns are mounting\u201d over his life and health, Dr Muneer al-Boursh posted on X on Saturday.<\/p>\n

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He noted reports that Abu Safia has been assaulted while in an Israeli detention facility and has sustained injuries to his eye, head and chest.<\/p>\n

Abu Safia\u2019s ongoing detention and lack of medical care have made his health condition a \u201csource of extreme alarm that demands urgent action not postponed statements,\u201d al-Boursh added.<\/p>\n

Abu Safia was the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital who led the facility, one of the last functioning in northern Gaza, through an 85-day siege before Israeli forces raided it and detained him on December 27, 2024.<\/p>\n

He has been held without charge under Israel\u2019s unlawful combatant law, which permits indefinitely renewable detention; Israel\u2019s supreme court rejected an appeal for his release in June. His lawyer, who visited him last month, reported new signs of beatings and torture. Rights groups, including Amnesty International and the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, have warned that his life is in imminent danger.<\/p>\n

Al-Boursh said the \u201cirony\u201d of Abu Safia\u2019s detention \u201cis agonising\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr Hussam Abu Safia, who stayed by his patients\u2019 side at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the bleakest of circumstances, now finds himself behind bars, stripped of his freedom, as fears grow for his physical safety and detention conditions.\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hold the [Israeli] occupation authorities fully responsible for his life and safety, and we demand an urgent, independent and comprehensive medical examination for him, ensuring he receives the necessary treatment,\u201d al-Boursh added.<\/p>\n

The ministry chief urged \u201cfreedom\u201d for Abu Safia and all healthcare workers detained by Israel. He also called on the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, the UN and medical and human rights groups to take action.<\/p>\n

Israel \u2018has not adhered to ceasefire\u2019<\/p>\n

The appeal came as Al Jazeera correspondents reported a sharp deterioration throughout Gaza\u2019s health sector, nearly 10 months into a \u201cceasefire\u201d that Israel continues to breach on a near-daily basis.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, three Palestinians were injured by Israeli army fire north of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, reported the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Israeli forces had also carried out extensive demolition operations south of the city since this morning, while military vehicles continued firing east of Salah al-Din Street near the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the centre of the enclave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Israeli occupation has not adhered to the terms of the ceasefire, nor even to the protocol attached to this ceasefire,\u201d said Al Jazeera\u2019s Noor Khaled, reporting from Gaza City.<\/p>\n

She added that the Israeli-controlled \u201cyellow\u201d zones now cover more than 70 percent of the Strip, leaving Palestinians confined to less than 30 percent \u2013 most of it destroyed.<\/p>\n

Crossings remain largely closed and around 20,000 patients were waiting to be evacuated for treatment abroad, Khaled added. Of the 600 aid trucks which should deliver daily, \u201cwhat enters does not exceed 250 trucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Deir al-Balah, correspondent Ashraf Abu Amra said Nasser Hospital had reported \u201cthree to four patients dying daily due to the shortage of medicines and medical supplies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last week, Israeli forces destroyed a medical supply warehouse<\/a> serving nearly half a million people in a direct strike near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.<\/p>\n

Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN human rights office in the occupied Palestinian territories, told Al Jazeera that Gaza\u2019s health system was among the hardest hit. \u201cIt will take generations\u201d for Palestinians in Gaza to recover from the trauma and loss, he said. He warned that malnutrition, collapsing shelter and lack of safe drinking water could not be tackled while the entry of dual-use materials remained blocked by Israel.<\/p>\n

Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry said hospitals received two people who had died of their wounds and six injured in the past 24 hours. The latest casualties increased the death toll since last October\u2019s \u201cceasefire\u201d to 1,257 and 4,131 wounded. In total, Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians since October 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The director general of Gaza\u2019s Ministry of Health has called for urgent action to \u201csave\u201d the life of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50,163,1155,85,46,44,47,43,48],"class_list":["post-578861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-gaza","tag-health","tag-human-rights","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}