Release Dr Hussam Abu Safia immediately! | | Gaza

Dr Hussam Abu Safia‘s life is in imminent danger. This is what his lawyer Nasser Odeh said after visiting him on Thursday at the secret interrogation center, part of Israel’s Nitzan prison.

If we don’t act soon, Gaza could lose yet another brilliant doctor, and Israel could be spared yet another brutal crime.

Abu Safia, a Palestinian pediatrician and head of a hospital, began filming the world on December 27, 2024. That day he was seen wearing a white doctor’s coat and walking through the explosive ruins of the former northern Gaza road to a truck where the Israeli army was waiting for him.

They were not providing an army; handed over the small but fragile Kamal Adwan hospital after an 85-day siege in which staff and patients were forced to leave at gunpoint. A hospital that should have been protected by international law, international leaders and the United Nations but instead was attacked, deprived of medicine, electricity and goods.

At least 30 people died and 20 were injured in the hospital when Israeli soldiers opened fire on December 6, 2024. When his teenage son Ibrahim was killed outside the hospital, Abu Safia. He said the funeral prayers himself before rushing back to her sick son.

A photo and video of Abu Safia’s last moments of freedom were shared around the world on social media, capturing the attention of millions and showing the limits of social media security. International exposure has not changed its fate or Gaza or politics bad government of Israel.

Abu Safia is not a “terrorist” or a “militant”. If anything, he is a defender of life who stands by his patients: Palestinian children under Israeli occupation, the targets of bombs, sniper fire and the sad siege of Israel causes hunger, thirst, disease and premature death among them.

Israel says Abu Safia is “affiliated with Hamas” and has detained him under the Anti-Illegal Act. No evidence has been presented to substantiate this claim, no charges have been brought, and no independent observer has been able to investigate the alleged information to support his arrest.

On June 10, Abu Safia appeared in public after more than 500 days of brutal detention. He appeared via video from the dangerous Nafha prison at the trial of the Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem. He was bound in chains and shackles, he looked thin and unwell, but he was calm and dignified. Less than a month later, his lawyer visited him in Nitzan prison. He had trouble identifying his client because he had been beaten so badly that he would pass out during meetings.

Abu Safia is one of hundreds of Palestinian doctors arrested by Israel. Fourteen doctors, including him, remain in Israeli jails and prisons. Two did not survive, as did 1,700 health workers they have been killed.

Why are Palestinian doctors and hospital workers arrested, detained, tortured and killed by Israel? For years, the Israeli military has targeted Palestinian health care, in violation of international law, promoting ethnic cleansing and collective punishment as part of their colonial propaganda. Israel’s epistemicide aims to remove all traces of Palestinian identity, architecture and society.

To cover up their crimes, the Israeli military says Gaza hospitals are military shelters or “command centers” for fighting Palestinian militants. To date, they have not been able to produce independent, definitive proof of this. I have been working in various hospitals in Gaza for 25 years, especially in al-Shifa in Gaza City, and I have never seen any evidence of the use of hospitals or ambulances.

The arrest, harassment and torture of Palestinian doctors and other hospital workers in Gaza is aimed at forcing the acceptance of false claims about the use of hospitals in Gaza. Unsuccessful. My friends never gave up. They stand by the truth.

But there is another incentive for Israel to arrest and kill more medical personnel. Hospital workers testify and are directly involved in documenting Israeli war crimes. Since the attack, pediatricians like Abu Safia have raised concerns about Israel’s intent to target Palestinian children and destroy them.

What he foretold soon came true released a UN report which confirmed that there was clear evidence of “Israel’s deliberate and direct targeting of Palestinian children” and the destruction of “the beginning of childhood”.

More than 24,000 Gazan children have been killed, at least one Palestinian child has been killed by Israeli forces. every hour for 1,000 days.

As of September, approximately 1,009 of the children killed were infants or children. About half (450) of these children were born and killed during the war. About 42,011 children have been injured.

Millions of Palestinian children still live under Israeli siege, homeless, without food and without access to safe drinking water, regular education or proper medical care. The killing and maiming of Gaza’s children continues daily.

A senior pediatrician in Gaza recently described the life of Gazan schoolchildren to me this way:

“The most important tasks that school children do every morning are: first, to look for water; second, to look for food in food distribution centers; third, to collect garbage that can be used for fire. …

Like the starving children of Gaza, Abu Safia is a well-known symbol of Israel’s brutal culture. That is why, the Israeli authorities continue to torture him and keep him in solitary confinement while the Israeli courts reject his pleas for release.

My Palestinian friends in Gaza are not only calling for Abu Safia’s release, but also for aid to hospitals and for an end to the targeting of medical workers. They want an immediate end to the occupation and siege and the restoration of the basic things that make health possible: human security, dignity, food, water, justice and the safety of ordinary people’s lives. The main problem in Gaza now, as it was 1,000 days ago, is the United States supported by Israeli colonialism, the sad siege, sectarian violence and discrimination.

There is no international aid group with several medical teams led by Israel traveling internationally or a useless international mission that will not make a difference. The only way forward in terms of deterrence and tougher international sanctions is to isolate Israel in order to stop this genocide, end the occupation and save lives.

Time is running out. History will judge us. There are no excuses.

Do more, do more – or stay connected.

This is our responsibility; this is the responsibility of every western politician, parliament and government. Everyone can do their part. Be active, protest and organize cooperation and support the rightful struggle and resistance of the Palestinian people.

Seventeen years ago during Israel’s 2009 war on Gaza, I shouted from al-Shifa hospital:

“We walk in death, blood and mutilations. Lots of children. Pregnant women. I’ve never seen anything so terrible. Now we hear tanks. Say, give, shout. Anything. DO SOMETHING! DO MORE! We’re living in the history books now, all of us!”

Take action! Do more! it has never been more important.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.