July 07, 2026
Israel continues to ignore
international calls to free the director of Gaza’s Kamal
Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, from over 18 months
of Israeli detention without charge. After seeing Dr. Abu
Safiya on July 2, his attorney Nasser Odeh says the doctor
faces “tangible danger to his life” from torture and
medical neglect. For more, we speak to Tirza Leibowitz, the
deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights Israel, about
Abu Safiya’s case and efforts to secure his release. The
group has filed an appeal in the Israeli courts requesting
the release of Abu Safiya and 13 other Palestinian doctors
who were captured in Gaza and imprisoned by the Israeli
military.
We also hear from Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a
Chicago-based emergency room physician and former colleague
of Hussam Abu Safiya. Ahmad volunteered as a medical
practitioner in Gaza in 2024. He says Abu Safiya has become
a “symbol of Palestinian resilience” and, in particular,
Israel’s systematic targeting of Gaza’s healthcare
system, which continues to this day. “The necessary aid is
not entering, the bombing still persists, people are still
dying on a regular basis, and these hospitals don’t have
the supplies that they need to be able to treat their
patients,” says Ahmad.
Transcript
This is
a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final
form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is
Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman,
with Juan González.
We turn now to Gaza, to the case
of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the jailed pediatrician, director
of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, who’s been imprisoned
since his arrest by Israeli troops in December of 2024. On
Monday, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention joined
global calls for Israel to immediately release Dr. Abu
Safiya.
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Last week, his lawyer, from the group
Physicians for Human Rights Israel, met with Dr. Abu Safiya
and said the doctor had experienced an increase in beatings,
violence and torture inside Israeli prisons. In a statement
released Sunday, the lawyer said Dr. Abu Safiya told him,
quote, “They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see
myself surviving. This is the end,” he said. His lawyer
reported seeing bruising so severe across the doctor’s
body, including on his head and face, that he could barely
recognize him.
This is a video message posted on
Instagram Sunday from Dr. Abu Safiya’s son Elyas, who says
his father showed clear signs of torture and medical neglect
during the recent meeting with his lawyer in which Dr. Abu
Safiya described being beaten with a
hammer.
ELYAS ABU SAFIYA:
[translated] My father was unable to breathe. My father was
unable to speak. His face was disfigured from the marks of
torture and pain, especially after the last court session
held in Jerusalem at the Supreme Court. … We still call
out, plead and appeal and beg to all the free people of the
world and to everyone with an atom of humanity in their
heart, to save my father’s life before it’s too
late.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr.
Abu Safiya is among at least 14 doctors from Gaza who
have been detained by Israel without charge for more than a
year. The Israeli Supreme Court rejected an appeal last
month to release Abu Safiya, who’s being held under
Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows the
indefinite detention of suspects. Palestinian officials say
Israeli attacks have killed about 1,700 healthcare workers
in Gaza since October 2023. At least 83 medical workers
remain in Israeli prisons.
For more, we’re joined
now by two guests. From Jerusalem, we’re joined by Tirza
Leibowitz, the deputy director of Physicians for Human
Rights Israel, and from Chicago, by Dr. Thaer Ahmad, an
emergency room physician based in Chicago and board member
of the Palestinian American Medical Association, who
volunteered in Gaza in 2024 and was in frequent contact with
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.
I want to go to Tirza Leibowitz
first. This case, the case of Dr. Abu Safiya, is going
through the Israeli courts. Isn’t there even a decision
expected today? Can you explain what you understand at this
point and what his lawyer saw when meeting with Dr. Abu
Safiya for the first time in a number of
months?
TIRZA LEIBOWITZ: So, in terms
of what the lawyer saw, we heard correctly, as we heard it
directly from the lawyer, the bruising on the face. The
lawyers, under his watch, Dr. Abu Safiya had problems
breathing, had problems speaking. It took time for him to be
able to speak. A number of times, he was on the verge — he
tilted in his seat and was on the verge of losing
consciousness, which led the lawyer to report to us at
Physicians for Human Rights Israel about the
situation.
In terms of what’s expected, what’s
expected is the response by the state to the appeal to
release the 14 doctors. So, this appeal was submitted by
Physicians for Human Rights Israel already at the end of
April this year, so this is a number of months ago. And time
after time, the state delayed the response that it was
ordered to provide to that appeal. And the last time was
last week. It asked for another delay. And we, of course,
objected, because we know exactly what happens during these
delays, as the case of Dr. Abu Safiya shows us. In response
to our objection, the court ordered the state to provide —
gave it, actually, an extension of several days, and today
is the day in which the state has to respond to the appeal
and address the situation of Dr. Abu Safiya. So, there is no
court decision expected. This is only about the state
response. And we have yet to see. We have not received it
yet. And we are very concerned.
JUAN
GONZÁLEZ: And, Tirza, what’s been the response
on the streets of Israel among the public to these
allegations of torture of Palestinian medical
professionals?
TIRZA LEIBOWITZ: So,
I’d like to address two kinds of public. Since we are a
Physicians for Human Rights Israel, let me address the
medical community. From the time that Dr. Abu Safiya was
arrested, and even before, there were hundreds of healthcare
workers arrested since October 2023, and we have
continuously warned, turned to the Israeli Medical
Association, to the Ministry of Health, to all the
authorities, with knowing, having documented the abuse that
the detainees were going through when unlawfully held, with
no indictment against them. From the medical community, from
the formal medical community, there has been no response,
except when there was international pressure to say
something, the likes of there shouldn’t be abuse of
medical workers unless they are terrorists. So, you can
imagine what the meaning of that is. And to date, even
though we know that there have been numerous approaches
since we came out with the information about Dr. Abu Safiya
last — early this week, there have been numerous
approaches to the medical association here in Israel, as
well as to universities, to medical schools, to heads of
medical schools. So, there have been doctors, members of the
medical association, who have been asking and demanding for
the authorized body to come out with a statement, which
would be meaningful, and that has not happened to
date.
On the streets, I can say that in terms of the
Jewish Israeli public, there is anywhere between ignoring
— this thing is not being reported on the mainstream
Israeli media. It’s being reported only by the likes of
Haaretz or +972. So, most people are either
unaware or turning their eyes away from that. Of course, the
Palestinian population in Israel, of course, are all aware
of this and are actively also trying to take steps to put
pressure both in Israel and abroad.
AMY
GOODMAN: I wanted to bring in Dr. Thaer Ahmad,
emergency room physician, who we spoke to when he went to
Gaza, board member of the Palestinian American Medical
Association. Can you explain the significance of who Dr. Abu
Safiya is? I wanted to go to a clip, before you do, of Dr.
Abu Safiya in one of his final interviews in 2024 before
being detained, produced by
Sotouries.
DR. HUSSAM ABU
SAFIYA: [translated] I always say the situation
requires one to stand by our people’s side and not run
away from it. Gaza is our homeland, our mother, our beloved
and everything to us. Gaza deserves all of this
steadfastness and deserves all of the sacrifices. It is not
just about Gaza, but we deserve to be a people that deserves
freedom just like every other people on Earth. I think the
occupation wants us to get out and for us to ask them to get
us out, so they can publicly say that the healthcare system
is the one asking to leave and that it wasn’t them who
asked us to, but we are aware of that. But we will not
leave, God willing, from this place, as I said, for as long
as there are humanitarian services to be provided to our
people in the northern Gaza
Strip.
AMY GOODMAN: So,
that was Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya in one of his final
interviews before the Israeli military detained him. Dr.
Thaer Ahmad, his significance in Gaza and the Kamal Adwan
Hospital that he ran, this pediatric hospital, he himself a
pediatrician?
DR. THAER AHMAD: Yeah,
I mean, Dr. Hussam is somebody who I think most of the world
became familiar with as the Israeli military was conducting
their campaign and devastating the north of Gaza and the
rest of the Gaza Strip. And we would consistently hear from
him. He would give us updates about the situation that was
taking place in Gaza. When he became the director of Kamal
Adwan during the genocide, he was somebody that was telling
us about how the diesel fuel was running out, and that there
were children and babies in the incubators, and that they
were at the very last moments of their lives unless there
was some sort of aid entering. He’s somebody who’s
written two op-eds in The New York Times, in October
2023 as well as December 2024, moments before he was
abducted by the Israeli military. And he’s also somebody
who his own son was killed by the Israeli military a month
before he was abducted, and he had to bury his son in the
compound of that hospital. He’s somebody who was
injured.
This is somebody whose voice in Gaza and
outside of Gaza had become sort of the symbol of Palestinian
resilience, of the Palestinian medical care system. And he
knew very well — he knew very well that the Israeli
military was targeting the healthcare system. They were
purposely trying to make sure that it collapsed. And they
wanted to make sure that hospitals like Kamal Adwan, which
was situated in the north of Gaza, near Jabaliya, Beit
Lahia, Beit Hanoun, areas that the Israeli military was
leveling, neighborhood by neighborhood, they wanted to make
sure that it was destroyed. And Dr. Hussam knew that very
well. And, I mean, even in his last moments right before the
Israeli military had him approach a tank, you saw Dr. Hussam
appeal to the world, saying that if this hospital goes down,
people will unnecessarily suffer and die, and specifically
children.
So, Dr. Hussam is a senior medical
consultant in all of the Gaza Strip. And his presence, as
long as he stayed at that hospital, as long as he remained
present in the ICU of that pediatric hospital, there was at
least some degree of reassurance to the patients and to the
families who desperately needed his services and his help.
And that was something that the Israeli military knew very
well. It’s why he had to be abducted in December of 2024.
It’s why he continues to remain in prison without any
charge. Nothing has been brought against him. Not a single
shred of evidence has been produced against somebody like
Dr. Hussam.
And it’s a message that’s being sent
to the entire healthcare system, to all of the healthcare
workers. And it fits in line — I mean, I think it’s
important for us to recognize, as you mentioned, how many
healthcare workers have perished over the last two-plus
years in Palestine. I mean, there is an intentional effort
to make sure that healthcare workers are not safe and
secure, that they are not protected, and that they continue
to be killed, they continue to be abducted and continue to
be displaced. If the healthcare workers do not have the
protections that are supposed to be afforded to them, then
what chance do the rest of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
have?
And so, I think that’s something that’s
important for people to recognize, that Dr. Hussam, just
like Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, who was murdered in an Israeli
prison, just like Dr. Khaled Alser, who you interviewed on
this program, was abducted for six months and then released,
and like many of 14 doctors that still remain, it’s a
message that’s being sent to all Palestinians. And that
message is that nobody is safe and nobody is secure. I mean,
I worked with two of the 14 doctors that are mentioned in
this list, and I knew Dr. Hussam well, and I know his
family, and I stay in contact with them. Dr. Nahed and Dr.
Mahmud, I worked with them at Nasser Hospital, and I worked
with them on patients who were being injured in this
genocide. And they, for over two years, remain abducted
without charge in Israeli prisons.
And the final thing
I’ll say is, everybody knows what happens to Palestinians
in Israeli prisons. They know the treatment that they are
being subjected to. They know the conditions on the ground.
So, when Nasser Odeh, Dr. Hussam’s lawyer, says, “I’m
really worried that he may imminently die,” I mean, it’s
not an exaggeration. It’s not performative. Almost a
hundred Palestinians have been killed since October 7th in
these prisons, in these dungeons. And so, it’s a cause for
concern. There’s an incredible amount of
urgency.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Dr. Ahmad, I
wanted to ask you: The Israeli claims that he was somehow
cooperating with Hamas, how do you respond to that? And
also, what do you say to other doctors still working in Gaza
who see what’s happening to their
colleague?
DR. THAER AHMAD: I mean,
that, it’s a joke. Nobody takes it seriously, what the
Israeli military says about Palestinians, in general. Dr.
Hussam, anybody that’s worked with him, anybody that’s
worked alongside him knows that he’s a phenomenal
pediatrician and that he’s an incredible hospital
director. Same goes for all of the healthcare workers that
are in these Israeli prisons currently. This idea that
Palestinians could somehow spend their entire lives working
and studying to become doctors and to professionally develop
themselves, that they could also be something else, it’s a
part of dehumanization. It’s a part of this sort of racism
against Palestinians, that somehow they can be these
phenomenal orthopedic surgeons and pediatricians and cancer
doctors and nephrologists, and then, at night, they can turn
into some nefarious character. It’s a joke. Nobody takes
it seriously.
And anybody that’s worked alongside
the healthcare workers in Palestine, anybody that’s worked
with any sort of Palestinians on projects or research,
understand that they are an incredible group of physicians,
nurses, first responders. They take their job very
seriously. And the things that we’ve asked them to do over
the last two-plus years in the midst of a suffocating siege,
of a famine that spread throughout all of the Gaza Strip,
and a military that was absolutely leveling the entire of
the Gaza Strip, it’s unreal that we asked them to do that,
and we asked them to that in impossible
conditions.
And so, when I talk to my colleagues on
the ground every single day now, it’s very tough to be
able to explain to them or to talk to them about the
conditions on the ground, to ask them day after day, “Oh,
how are things? Are there more cancer drugs? Are there more
insulin for the diabetics? Are the kids with — who are
malnourished, are they getting the nutrients that they need?
Are they getting the food that they need?” And I think
that’s an important point.
I mean, one thing is, I
think there’s this idea that on October 9th there was this
ceasefire announced in Palestine and in the Gaza Strip. But
when I talk to my colleagues, that’s also a lie, just like
the Israelis continue to lie about what — you know, Dr.
Hussam or any of these other physicians, why they’re in
these prisons. They continue to push this farce of a
ceasefire. The necessary aid is not entering, the bombing
still persists, people are still dying on a regular basis,
and these hospitals don’t have the supplies that they need
to be able to treat their patients. And if you look anywhere
in the Gaza Strip right now, you’ll see that the Israeli
military continues to encroach on the Gaza Strip, occupying
more and more of the land. And so —
AMY
GOODMAN: Dr. Thaer Ahmad, we —
DR.
THAER AHMAD: — it’s devastating on the ground.
Many of the healthcare workers there, I know, are fatigued,
I know, are exhausted, I know, are burnt out. And it’s
because of the silence of the international community.
It’s the fact that —
AMY GOODMAN:
Dr. Thaer Ahmad, we’re going to — we’re going to
—
DR. THAER AHMAD: — there was
this Board of Peace announcing a ceasefire, but on the
ground, nothing has actually changed. And that’s something
that I’m worried about —
AMY
GOODMAN: We’re going to continue to talk about
this in our next segment.
DR. THAER
AHMAD: — of course, as a physician. But when I
talk to my colleagues, and they tell me that there are
18,000 people that need to be urgently medically evacuated,
that there are people with cancer every single day that are
not getting the chemotherapy, that should be surviving but
are dying —
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Thaer
Ahmad, we’re going to have to leave it there, because
we’re going to continue to talk about Gaza in our next
segment, what is happening there next. Dr. Thaer Ahmad is
emergency room physician based in Chicago, volunteered in
Gaza in 2024. And Tirza Leibowitz is the deputy director of
Physicians for Human Rights Israel, speaking to us from
Jerusalem.
Coming up, Hamas has announced it’s
handing over governing authority in Gaza to an interim
Palestinian administration overseen by President Trump’s
Board of Peace. What does this mean for Gaza? Back in 15
seconds.
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