A Gaza doctor who has been published twice by The New York Times and profiled by CNN is actively detained and being interrogated by Israel, which believes he is a terrorist operative. But despite evidence suggesting close ties to Hamas, international organizations are hailing him as a humanitarian.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested on Friday along with 240 others during a raid on the hospital, Reuters reported.
In the wake of his arrest, organizations including the World Health Organization, Amnesty International, and the Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR), have called for his release. But as the global campaign to free Abu Safiya from Israeli detention takes off, revelations have come to light about his alleged dual role as a Hamas colonel.
In a statement, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reported that the hospital was being used as a terrorist command, where they recovered grenades, guns, ammunition, and other military equipment in the area. Patients and medical staff were reportedly relocated to the Indonesian Hospital, with additional fuel and medical supplies provided. About 15 of those arrested are believed to have infiltrated Israel on the October 7 attack.
The statement adds that Abu Safiya was taken for questioning due to being suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative. The IDF confirmed to The Daily Wire that Abu Safiya is still currently detained and being interrogated.
Media outlets including CNN have profiled Abu Safiya without investigating his ties to Hamas. The New York Times published two op-eds authored by Abu Safiya where he begged for help for his hospital. Abu Safiya’s family issued a statement demanding his release and urging the media to apply pressure for his freedom.
Abu Safiya, a pediatrician who has cultivated an image as a defender of human rights to mask his terrorist ties, was exposed first by Israeli activist Eitan Fischberger. In multiple Arab media reports or social media posts, Abu Safiya is referred to as a Colonel.
In five Arabic news articles, from four different articles, spanning from 2017 to 2021, Abu Safiya was referred to with his Hamas terrorist military rank of Colonel. These articles are published in Quds Net News Agency, Alray, Pal Times, and twice in Al Watan.
A 2018 Facebook post by the Hamas-run Medical Services in Gaza refers to Abu Safiya as “Director of the Children’s Hospital, Colonel Hussam Abu Safiya.”
“It’s clear these news articles are using the word ‘aqeed’ to describe Hussam Abu Safiya which means military colonel,” Yigal Carmon, the president of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) told The Daily Wire.
“This word would not be used to describe someone running a hospital as a civilian,” he added. “Besides, a few of the articles mention his role in the hospital in addition to using the word Colonel. Other doctors are mentioned too with military ranks and some doctors are mentioned just as doctors. They are distinguished.”
Apart from IDF accusations, Kamal Adwan hospital has been described as being overrun by Hamas. In the Pal Times article mentioned above, the Kamal Adwan hospital is described as belonging to the military medical services in the northern Gaza region. Dr. Baxtiyar Baram, a Kurdish physician who volunteered in Al-Awda hospital and Kamal Adwam hospital, accused Hamas of exploiting the hospital.
“I saw that hospitals had been used for hiding Hamas leaders,” Baram said in an interview, reported the Jerusalem Post. He added that he believes Israel’s accusations of using human shields is correct because he has “seen it with my own eyes.”
Safiya’s social media shows his support of the October 7 attack and hostility towards Jews. The day after the attack, Safiya shared a graphicof Palestinians breaching the Israeli border with the caption, “We are coming back to you, we are coming back, oh our country we are coming back.”
The next day, Abu Safiya wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post: “And they thought their fortresses would protect them from Allah, but Allah came upon them from where they did not expect, and cast terror into their hearts.”
Safiya’s social media history gave an insight into his beliefs before the Israel-Hamas war as well.
In 2020, Abu Safiya used a verse from the Quran about not allying with Christians or Jews to encourage against “normalizing with the enemy.” In 2021, he shared an image of terrorists with terrorist logos including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In a 2022 post, Abu Safiya called for the “beloved people of Palestine and Al-Aqsa Mosque” to be protected from “the injustice of the Jews and their aggression.”
“Nobody should be surprised that even doctors and hospital directors are part of Hamas,” Carmon said. “Hamas leaders are not uneducated thugs. They are the top of their society and highly-educated idealists, but their ideal is to annihilate the Jews.”
Abu Safiya has been especially outspoken on Instagram and Facebook as the IDF has waged a new offensive against Hamas in northern Gaza. The doctor told CNN he was briefly detained and interrogated in October.
Aby Safiya’s family posted to his Instagram account on Monday calling for his immediate release.
“Detained by Israeli occupation forces while performing his humanitarian duty, he now suffers severe mistreatment in Sde Teiman detention center, including humiliation, exposure to freezing cold, and denial of medical care,” the post states.
CAIR described Abu Safiya as “kidnapped” and called on the Biden Administration to demand his release. The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also called for his release.
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