Hamas holds Israel ‘fully responsible’ for safety of detained Gaza hospital director

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says Israel stands fully responsible over the recent arrest of the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital. 

“We hold the Zionist occupation fully responsible for the safety of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and all the nurses and paramedics who have faced the same unknown fate after being abducted by the occupation forces,” Hamas said in statement on Monday.

"We demand the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and all international rights groups exert pressure on the occupation authorities to reveal the fate of Dr. Abu Safiya and all his colleagues who were kidnapped while they were on their duty and to release them immediately," the statement read.

A US media report said Safiya, who was arrested during an Israeli raid that shut down the last major functioning healthcare facility in northern Gaza, was being held at a military base that also operates as a detention center.

“Two Palestinian prisoners released this weekend from the facility said they saw Abu Safiya at the prison, and another former detainee said he heard Abu Safiya's name being read out,” the CNN report said.

Israeli troops stormed the hospital on Friday following nearly three months of a suffocating blockade and constant airstrikes targeting the facility and its surroundings.

The bombardment caused fires in several hospital departments, resulting in the death and injury of Palestinian medical staff and patients.

All remaining medical personnel, patients, and their families were forced out of the hospital at gunpoint, stripped to their underwear, and taken to an undisclosed location.

Calls are growing for the immediate release of the Kamal Adwan Hospital director, Dr. Safiya, who was forcibly detained by Israeli forces following his heroic resistance in the face of the regime’s aggression.

Israeli forces violently detained and interrogated the medical staff of Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the last functioning health centers in Gaza.

The Gaza Health Ministry said an estimated 50 people, including medical staff, were killed in Israeli air strikes targeting the vicinity of the hospital on Friday and the rest were abducted by the occupation forces.

Safiya was among those taken for questioning by the Israeli military over alleged links to the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a ‘hero in scrubs’ saving lives amid genocidal war on Gaza

Despite losing his young son, sustaining severe injuries, and facing constant threats, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya refused to abandon his hospital and patients in Gaza. Now his whereabouts are unknown.

Elsewhere in the statement, Hamas called on the international community and organizations "to work on providing basic medical services to our people in the northern Gaza Strip" after the Israeli military destroyed all health facilities and put them out of service.

International humanitarian agencies say the attacks on hospitals, ambulances, and health care personnel are a key tactic in the genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel’s attacks on civilian infrastructure, hospitals, and health care are also part of a deliberate effort to collectively punish and depopulate across the besieged Palestinian territory.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk