Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) reported on Jan. 5 that the Israeli military is preventing Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, from meeting with a lawyer to assess his condition and detention circumstances. “Despite our urgent requests to send an attorney, the military says he’s barred from lawyer visits until 10.01.2025,” said PHRI on social media. In an earlier post, they wrote, “The Israeli military also continues to withhold information about Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya’s detention location….”
In a post on Jan. 6, PHRI wrote: “Medical professionals are protected by international humanitarian law. And there’s a reason for that and that is that if you attack healthcare professionals, you attack a whole society, you attack civilians who need medical attention, people with chronic illnesses, people with injuries…”
Earlier on Jan. 6, PHRI reported: “Our numbers say that there are more than 20,000 people waiting for urgent medical evacuations. The reason is that there is no active healthcare system in Gaza and hundreds of medical professionals have lost their ability to care for their people. More than 1000 medical professionals were killed, 230 were arrested, 130 are still held in Israeli incarceration facilities … More than 70 people have already died in Israeli Incarceration facilities. Just as a comparison, nine people died in Guantanamo in 22 years of operation. We have here more than 70 people in just a few months.”
