Tareq S. Hajjaj
Mondoweiss / January 16, 2025
It has been 3 weeks since Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya was abducted by Israeli forces from north Gaza. New information obtained by Mondoweiss reveals details about the first hours of the doctor’s detention at the Sde Teiman prison camp.
He entered the cell at Sde Teiman, Israel’s notorious torture camp, with his hands and feet tied and his eyes blindfolded. He showed signs of fatigue, exhaustion, and psychological distress. As soon as the Israeli soldier brought him into the cell and untied him, the other prisoners from the northern Gaza Strip recognized him immediately and approached to assist him. He was. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the Director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.
Dr. Abu Safiya was detained by Israeli soldiers after a deadly raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital on December 27, 2024. Since his detention, Israeli officials have not confirmed his exact whereabouts, or released information about his condition. Dr. Abu Safiya’s unknown whereabouts have led to wide speculation about his fate, with many, including his family, fearing that he is being subjected to abuse by the Israeli military due to his high public profile.
Early reports by Al-Jazeera suggested Dr. Abu Safiya was being held at Sde Teiman, a prison camp in the desert that has been the site of ‘systematic torture’ of Palestinian detainees, according to human rights groups. Last week, Mondoweiss spoke to recently released detainees who corroborated those reports, saying that they were held in the same cell as Dr. Abu Safiya at Sde Teiman in the first hours of his detention.
“Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya arrived at the cell late at night, around 10 pm on December 27 in Sde Teiman military prison. We know Dr. Hussam as a stately and respectable man, but he arrived at the prison in an indescribable state. The army humiliated him,” says Muhammad Ramlawi, 38, a resident from Jabalia who was released last Friday after 70 days in Israeli detention.
Ramlawi was amongst a group of prisoners who were detained during Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign of northern Gaza last fall. Periodically throughout its genocidal assault, Israel will release prisoners in batches back into Gaza after months of detention and torture.
Mondoweiss spoke to Ramlawi and a number of other prisoners upon their release into southern Gaza via the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing. The former prisoners say they were in the same cell with Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya during the first days of his detention, following Israel’s attack on the Kamal Adwan Hospital and the abduction of Dr. Abu Safiya.
Ramlawi says he and his fellow prisoners immediately recognized Dr. Abu Safiya, who is a notable and revered figure in northern Gaza, and that they “tried not to stress” the doctor, offering him what little food they had, and suggesting he rest.
“We grabbed him and said to him, ‘Come on doctor, let’s help you rest a little,’ and as soon as we grabbed him, his eyes filled with tears, and he said to us, ‘The army has humiliated me, it has abused me,’” Ramlawi told Mondoweiss.
“He sat down for a while and rested, and we prepared a bed for him and gathered blankets for him, and I gave him my blanket so he could rest and get some warmth. He slept that night, and we talked to him the next day.”
The next morning, the prisoners were eager to know what had happened at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, and what the situation was like in northern Gaza since they had been detained. They gathered around the doctor and asked what had happened before he arrived at the prison.
According to the released detainees, Doctor Abu Safiya told them that the Israeli army had destroyed the northern Gaza Strip and burned Kamal Adwan Hospital in front of his eyes. “Tears welled up in his eyes again,” Ramlawi recounted. “But the young men detained with him began lifting his spirits and telling him they would rebuild everything.”
The prisoners described Dr. Abu Safiya as being in a “difficult psychological state,” and that he was still suffering from physical pain due to the wounds he sustained when Israeli soldiers were attacking Kamal Adwan Hospital in December. The prisoners did not, however, describe any other obvious signs of physical torture or abuse on the doctor.
Mustafa Hassouna, 39, was detained alongside Ramlawi and Dr. Abu Safiya. When he spoke to Mondoweiss, Hassouna expressed his indignation over the treatment of the doctor “given his status in society.”
“He is a person known to the whole world as a doctor. We felt [Israel]s treatment] insulted him, and he felt insulted, too, but we treated him like our father. We know how he got to this cell, and we know that the road is filled with insults, beatings, curses, and endless humiliation by the army soldiers. This is how every detainee gets to prison. They don’t spread roses on the ground for us,” said Hassouna.
Hassouna pointed out that the doctor told the prisoners that the army treated him “like any other prisoner,” and did not respect or have regard for his status as a doctor and hospital director. The doctor also allegedly told the prisoners that the Israeli soldiers accused him of having affiliations with armed groups in Gaza.
“He was in a terrible psychological state when he arrived, anxious and uncomfortable because he had never been to a prison before. The army insulted him and treated him brutally and harshly, which made him cry inside the prison and say, ‘Why is this happening to a well-known doctor? Why is the army leveling accusations against me?’,” Hassouna said.
He added that according to the doctor, Israeli soldiers kept him in a solitary confinement cell for a night before interrogating him and sending him to the cell with the other prisoners in Sde Teiman.
On the evening of December 28, Ramlawi, Hassouna and a few others learned they would be released in the morning. He says that Dr. Abu Safiya instructed him to carry a message for his wife.
“Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya came to me when he learned of my release and said that he wanted to ask me for something, so I told him anything. He said: ‘I want you to send a message to my wife to keep talking about the arrest through the media, to create hype about the matter, and not to be silent. And to demand and appeal to international institutions, the Red Cross, and human rights organizations to pressure to release him from prison. He also asked me to tell his wife to take care of his son Youssef,” Ramlawi said.
The Israeli army arrested Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya from inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital on December 27.
The Israeli army initially denied holding Dr. Abu Safiya, despite widespread documentation of his detention from the Kamal Adwan Hospital. After pressure from human rights groups, days after his disappearance, the army confirmed that they were holding Dr. Abu Safiya, and that he was “currently being investigated by Israeli security forces.” The army went on to claim that Dr. Abu Safiya was suspected of being a “terrorist” and for “holding a rank” in Hamas. Israel has used similar unfounded allegations against other Palestinian doctors from Gaza to justify their detention and torture.
The Al-Mezan Foundation for Human Rights, which has been monitoring Dr. Abu Safiya’s case, has since said that he is believed to have been transferred to the Ofer prison in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. His detention was extended to February 13, and he has been banned from access to legal counsel until January 22.
“The arbitrary detention of Dr. Abu Safiya and his colleagues is part of a broader pattern of systematic violations by Israel, aimed at the deliberate devastation of Gaza’s healthcare system. This intentional policy includes relentless military attacks targeting healthcare facilities and personnel, sieges and raids on hospitals, and the abduction of dozens of medical staff,” Al-Mezan said in a report.
Al-Mezan added that Israeli attacks have killed more than a thousand Palestinian healthcare workers in Gaza since October 2023, while at least 330 healthcare professionals have been detained during Israeli ground operations, including doctors who were later tortured and killed while in Israeli detention.
News of a ceasefire agreement being reached on Wednesday has brought renewed hope of an imminent prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas, which would see the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees being held by Israel. The fate of Dr. Abu Safiya and those abducted from Gaza during Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza, and whether they will be released in a prisoner swap, remains unknown.
Tareq S. Hajjaj is the Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent, and a member of the Palestinian Writers Union
