UN World Health Organization calls on Israel to release Gaza hospital director as death toll rises to 45,500

Geneva The Director-General of the United Nations World Health Organization called on Monday for the immediate release of Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip, who is undergoing immediate treatment. Which was detained by the Israeli army after a major raid On the facility. The World Health Organization said that the attack that targeted Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahia on Friday and Saturday led to the last major health facility in northern Gaza being out of service and emptied of patients.

“Hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlefields The health system is under severe threatThe Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said He said on X. “Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza was out of service after the raid. Patients and staff were forcibly evacuated and its director arrested. His whereabouts are unknown. We demand his immediate release.”

The Israeli army announced on Sunday that its forces killed about 20 Palestinian activists and arrested “240 terrorists” in the raid, describing it as one of the “largest operations” it carried out in the Strip. The Israeli army said it arrested Abu Safiya on suspicion of being a Hamas activist. When asked whether he had been transferred to Israeli territory for further interrogation, the army did not provide an immediate comment.

Israeli officials have consistently accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields, placing its weapons and fighters in and under hospitals, schools and other vital infrastructure. The group, which has long been classified as a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States, has denied the accusations.

Tedros said patients who were in critical condition at Kamal Adwan were transferred to the Indonesian Hospital, also located in northern Gaza, “which is itself out of service.”

He said: “Amid the ongoing chaos in northern Gaza, the World Health Organization and its partners today delivered medical supplies, basic hygiene, food and water to the Indonesian hospital and transferred 10 patients in critical condition to Al-Shifa Hospital.” “We urge Israel to ensure that their health care needs and rights are respected.”

He added that seven patients, along with 15 caregivers and health workers, remain in the Indonesian hospital, “which has suffered severe damage,” and “does not have the capacity to provide care.”

Tedros added, “The National Hospital and Al-Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital in Gaza City were also subjected to attacks today and sustained damage.” “We repeat: stop attacks on hospitals. People in Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarian workers need access to provide health assistance.”

A charity based in London Amnesty International also called on Israel for the immediate and unconditional release of Abu Safiya, saying in a series of social media posts that the hospital director had become “the voice of Gaza’s devastated health sector.”

5/1 We are deeply concerned about the fate and safety of Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was arrested along with others by Israeli forces during a raid on the hospital on 27 December. He must be released immediately and unconditionally. pic.twitter.com/nwqq95pLEc

— Amnesty International in the Middle East and North Africa (@AmnestyMENA) December 29, 2024

Charity He was accused The Israeli military committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – an accusation that Israel has repeated and vehemently rejected – and accused the IDF of detaining “hundreds of Palestinian health care workers” without bringing charges against them and subjecting them to “torture and other ill-treatment.”

Since October 6 this year, Israeli operations in Gaza have focused on the north, where officials say their ground and air offensive is aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping.

The total death toll in Gaza from the Israeli offensive has risen to 45,541, including 27 people the Health Ministry said were killed in just the past 24 hours, health officials in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territories said Monday.

The ministry said that at least 108,338 others have been injured since Israel launched its attack on Hamas. The war was launched in response to the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, which saw the militants kill about 1,200 people in Israel and kidnap 251 others.

The extremely cold winter temperatures have exacerbated the misery of Palestinians in Gaza after more than a year of war. Paramedics in the Gaza Strip reported the death of children due to hypothermia in recent weeks.

Dr. Fadda Al-Nadi, a doctor at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, which has not been fully operational since Israeli raids early this year, told CBS News last week that she was receiving one or two cases of hypothermia every day. Today, the youngest patients are the most at risk.

The club said: “In light of the pressure we are experiencing, many children are born prematurely, and this exposes them more to hypothermia.”