CAIRO (news agencies) — Under Gaza’s ceasefire deal, Israel freed dozens of doctors, nurses, paramedics and other medical personnel seized during raids on hospitals. But more than 100 remain in Israeli prisons, including Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, a hospital director who became the face of the struggle to keep treating patients under Israeli siege and bombardment.
Despite widespread calls for his release, Abu Safiya was not among the hundreds of Palestinian detainees and prisoners freed Monday in exchange for 20 hostages held by Hamas. Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has been imprisoned without charge by Israel for nearly 10 months.
Health Workers Watch, which documents detentions from Gaza, said 55 medical workers — including 31 doctors and nurses — were on lists of detainees from Gaza being freed Monday, though it could not immediately be confirmed all were released. The group said at least 115 medical workers remain in custody, as well as the remains of four who died while in Israeli prisons, where rights groups and witnesses have reported frequent abuse.
Cheering staff from al-Awda Hospital carried on their shoulders their released director, Ahmed Muhanna, who was held by Israel for about 22 months since being seized in a raid on the facility in northern Gaza in late 2023.
“Al-Awda Hospital will be restored, its staff will rebuild it with their own hands. … I am proud of what we have done and will do,” Muhanna told well-wishers, his face visibly gaunter than before his detention, according to video posted on social media.
Al-Awda Hospital, damaged during multiple offensives in the largely leveled Jabaliya refugee camp, has been shut down since May, when it was forced to evacuate during Israel’s latest offensive.
Israel’s two-year campaign aiming to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack decimated Gaza’s health system, forcing most of its hospitals to shut down and heavily damaging many, even as staff struggled to treat waves of wounded from bombardment amid supply shortages. During the war, Israeli forces raided a number of hospitals and struck others, detaining hundreds of staff.
Israel says it targeted hospitals because Hamas was using them for military purposes, a claim Palestinian health officials deny.
It was not known if Abu Safiya, 52, might still be released. Israeli officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. His family said on social media there were “no confirmed details about the date of his release,” adding that freed detainees described him as “in good health and strong spirits.”
The Israeli military said Abu Safiya was being investigated on suspicion of cooperating with or working for Hamas. Staff and international aid groups that worked with him deny the claims. In November 2023, Israeli forces seized Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, declaring him a Hamas officer — but then released him seven months later.
Abu Safiya, a pediatrician, led Kamal Adwan Hospital through an 85-day siege of the facility by Israeli troops during an offensive in the surrounding districts of Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun.
When troops raided the hospital on Dec. 27, images showed Abu Safiya in his white lab coat walking out of the building through streets of rubble toward an Israeli armored vehicle to discuss evacuation of patients. Abu Safiya and dozens of others, including patients and staff, were taken prisoner.
Abu Safiya “stayed in the hospital until the last moment. He didn’t leave because all health care services there would collapse if he left. Dr. Hossam is a truly great man,” said Dr. Saeed Salah, medical director of the Patient’s Friends Hospital in Gaza City, who has known Abu Safiya for 29 years.
Throughout the siege, Abu Safiya repeatedly refused military calls to shut down the hospital and evacuate. He posted frequent videos on social media showing staff struggling to treat waves of wounded Palestinians. He pleaded for international help as the hospital’s supplies ran out and reported on Israeli strikes on the building that caused injuries and deaths among patients and staff, and damaged wards.
In October 2024, a drone strike killed one of his sons, Ibrahim, at the hospital entrance.
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