The world has failed Abu Saffiya and his hospital – patients and staff burned alive, others detained and fate of heroic hospital leader unknown
Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hossam Abu Safia, stands alone in front of the occupation tanks before his arrest.” (Original photo: https://www.instagram.com/muhannad_almuqayed/
Dr Hussam Abu Saffiya, the heroic director of the Kamal Adwan hospital – the last remaining in northern Gaza before its destruction today – has been detained and disappeared by the Israel occupation after its forces stormed and set fire to the hospital, force-marching around 350 doctors and patients, according to Al Jazeera, half-naked into imprisonment. A number of patients too ill to move, and the staff who stayed to take care of them, were burned to death.
Abu Saffiya has become an icon of the hospital and of the spirit of peaceful Palestinian resistance. Badly wounded by an Israeli attack, he refused to abandon his patients and continued to treat them despite his own wounds and only left his hospital when there was nothing more to save. He was last seen – and pictured – walking resolutely toward the genocidal regime’s tanks in what must surely become one of the most iconic images of this century, let alone this year.
The Israeli regime admitted taking him into detention but there is no word of his fate or condition – the terror state has murdered and tortured to death a number of Palestinian doctors in detention.
Tributes to Dr Abu Saffiya and memories of his courage have flooded social media. Below are a few of the many, many examples:
Broadcaster Al Jazeera recalled Abu Saffiya’s appearance in one of its documentaries, saying “After news of his arrest by the occupation forces.. This is how Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya described life in Kamal Adwan Hospital in this documentary produced by #الجزيرة360“:
And the ‘Translating Falasteen’ news account reminded readers of the sacrifices Abbu Saffiya – and many others – made for the sake of their sick and wounded patients:
Israel has now told every resident living near the hospital to leave and said that it intends to blow up every building. After the destruction of what little remained of the Indonesian Hospital, the hundreds of thousands of people trapped and starving in northern Gaza are now without any healthcare facility.
Israel has regurgitated its repeatedly-disproven claim – also used and equally discredited in Lebanon – that the hospital was being used as a Hamas base, a claim absolutely denied by Hamas and by the hospital’s management. UK premier Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy have not even mentioned this new war crime, never mind condemned it.
Dr Abbu Saffiya and all detained innocents from Kamal Adwan Hospital and everywhere else in Palestine must be released immediately and international governments must impose absolute sanctions on finances, arms and other exports and every interaction with genocidal Israel until it complies. Criminally, the UK, US and many other western governments show no sign of doing so, absolutely devoid of the integrity, courage and humanity the health, emergency, rescue workers and journalists of Gaza, indeed the ordinary people there, have continually shown.
Skwawkbox stands in absolute solidarity with them and honours the memories of those whose refusal to abandon their patients, their oaths and their humanity have cost them their lives.
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Every bit as desperate a still picture of the lad with the bags holding up the row of tanks at tiananmen square.
The destruction all around is every bit as hauntingly sad as the photo of fhe self-immolated monk Thích Quảng Đức in Saigon.
But this picture’ll NEVER be given even a millionth of the exposure of either of those two.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see it proscribed by zionist governments with the assistance of the zuckerberg types.
God bless you, Dr Saffiyah.
God stiffen you, israeli vermin.
Meanwhile, keef gives ukraine £4.5m to prosecute Russian war crimes.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-continues-to-step-up-for-ukraine-as-new-funding-announced-to-bring-war-criminals-to-justice
Beyond a fookin joke.