By Amy Goodman,Nermeen Shaikh
Copyright truthout
A powerful new documentary produced by Fault Lines on Al Jazeera English tells the story of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the Palestinian pediatrician and director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza whom Israel has detained with virtually no contact to the outside world for almost nine months. He became known to millions of people around the world for his regular video dispatches from inside the hospital describing the toll of Israel’s brutal military assault on Gaza and on the hospital itself. In late December 2024, Israel raided Kamal Adwan Hospital and forcibly evicted its staff and patients. Dr. Abu Safiya was arrested by Israeli soldiers and has been held without charge in harsh conditions ever since.
We play clips from the documentary, The Disappearance of Dr. Abu Safiya, and speak with director Amel Guettatfi, as well as Dr. Azra Zyada in London, who was in frequent contact with Dr. Abu Safiya before his abduction.
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now to the story of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, an acclaimed Palestinian pediatrician and director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. As the situation around him became increasingly dire over the course of Israel’s bombardment, Dr. Abu Safiya began recording videos for the world to see what was happening in northern Gaza and to plead for help. This is Dr. Abu Safiya on December 22nd, 2024.
DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: [translated] We do not know why we are being bombed, and we do not know why we are being targeted in this way despite us asking the world for international protection. We continue to appeal to the world and remind them that there are Geneva Conventions, that the world sings praises of. This includes the protection of the healthcare system and the protection of hospital staff. Up until this moment, unfortunately, we are being targeted in full view of the entire world, but, unfortunately, falling on deaf ears.
AMY GOODMAN: When Dr. Abu Safiya recorded that video, the Kamal Adwan Hospital was the last functioning hospital in the north of Gaza. Just days later, Israeli forces stormed the medical complex, and the doctor was detained and imprisoned. He remains an Ofer Prison to this day, without charge or trial.
A powerful new film, produced by the documentary program Fault Lines on Al Jazeera English, tells his story. The film is called The Disappearance of Dr. Abu Safiya. We’ll be joined by the film’s director and a colleague in just a few minutes, but first to the film itself.
ALBINA ABU SAFIYA: [translated] They detained him and a few other doctors in the outpatient clinic. They interrogated them.
ELIAS ABU SAFIYA: [translated] He was beaten three times in the chest with the butt of a soldier’s gun and by hand, too. He was insulted. He was interrogated about trivial things. Why won’t you leave the hospital? Why are you staying in the north?
DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: [translated] The situation is catastrophic in every sense of the word.
ALBINA ABU SAFIYA: [translated] They told him, “Dr. Hussam, don’t connect with journalists.” They didn’t want him to tell the world what was happening in Gaza and in the north.
ELIAS ABU SAFIYA: [translated] In the early morning, when the army withdrew from Kamal Adwan Hospital, my father went to check on the hospital and the martyrs. He found my brother Ibrahim among the martyrs.
ABDEL MONEIM AL-SHRAFI: [translated] He collapsed. He was crying for six or seven hours. He didn’t stop, because he was very, very close to his son Ibrahim.
AMY GOODMAN: In the next clip, we hear from Dr. Abu Safiya, his wife Albina, and again from his son, who we just heard from, Elias.
DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: [translated] They burned our hearts over the hospital. They burned them completely. They killed my son because we deliver a humanitarian message.
ALBINA ABU SAFIYA: [translated] He was a young man, only 20 years old. He had his whole life ahead of him. He wanted to study medicine and become a doctor like his father. We buried my son next to the hospital, just outside the hospital, and said goodbye to him.
DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: Allahu Akbar.
ELIAS ABU SAFIYA: [translated] During the burial, my father was called to the ICU, and he responded. He left my brother Ibrahim during the funeral. He couldn’t even take the time to grieve my brother Ibrahim. He took his tears with him to the operating room. This made him more determined, because my father treated all his patients like they were his sons.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: The second raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital occurred on December 27th, 2024. In the following clip, nurses Rawiya Tanboura and Abdel Moneim al-Shrafi describe what happened. We also hear from Dr. Abu Safiya’s wife Albina describing his arrest and Israeli military personnel issuing orders.
RAWIYA TANBOURA: [translated] The tanks began to encircle the hospital.
ABDEL MONEIM AL-SHRAFI: [translated] There were so many tanks and vehicles. Me and the guys were joking that they moved all of Israel to us.
ISRAELI SOLDIER 1: [translated] Everyone in the hospital: The army surrounds you. You are surrounded.
RAWIYA TANBOURA: [translated] A big tank entered and stood by reception. And it started firing, firing forward, firing and turning. And then they pointed the muzzle through the reception door, and it was going like this at patients.
ABDEL MONEIM AL-SHRAFI: [translated] I thought it was the last day of my life.
ALBINA ABU SAFIYA: [translated] When the army arrived with a tank and a quadcopter, they called him.
ISRAELI SOLDIER 2: [translated] Doctor, lift your shirt. Doctor, lift your shirt.
ALBINA ABU SAFIYA: [translated] He was going to them confident that he had not done anything wrong. He went to them in his white coat.
ISRAELI SOLDIER 3: [translated] Come, Doctor. Come, Doctor.
ISRAELI SOLDIER 4: [translated] Good morning. How are you? Everything good? Come on in.
ABDEL MONEIM AL-SHRAFI: [translated] The army ordered Dr. Hussam to get all the people out.
ISRAELI SOLDIER 1: [translated] You must follow instructions and gather in the central courtyard. Everyone in the hospital: The army surrounds you.
ABDEL MONEIM AL-SHRAFI: [translated] Dr. Hussam got them out under the army’s order, under threat.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: In the next clip, Kamal Adwan nurse Rawiya Tanboura describes how they were forced to evacuate the hospital. Then we hear from nurse Abdel Moneim al-Shrafi about how male medical staff, including Dr. Abu Safiya, were treated by the Israeli military.
ALBINA ABU SAFIYA: [translated] They evacuated us women, including the female medical staff.
RAWIYA TANBOURA: [translated] Of course, every time the Israeli soldier speaks to us, he’s yelling. “Wait here, you son of a —.” We followed his orders and stood without a word. We’re scared.
ALBINA ABU SAFIYA: [translated] We asked them, “What about the men?” They said, “You’re going to go, and they will join you after.”
ISRAELI SOLDIER 5: [translated] There’s no one left inside?
DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: [translated] No, there’s no one left.
ISRAELI SOLDIER 5: [translated] The entire hospital?
DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: [translated] Yes, the entire hospital.
RAWIYA TANBOURA: [translated] Since the start of the raid, we suspected that Dr. Hussam would be arrested, because they had already threatened him.
ABDEL MONEIM AL-SHRAFI: [translated] The army finished what they needed to do, and Dr. Hussam said goodbye to them. As Dr. Hussam was walking away, they called for him: “Hussam, Hussam, come. Tel Aviv wants you.” They blindfolded him. They also tied his hands. And then they made him walk. And then they threw him to the ground and started beating him. That happened to all of us. They were treating us like we’re terrorists. Their message was: We are in control of everyone. They kept us in handcuffs. They humiliated and hit us. The covered our faces and told us to walk like this. They removed our clothes. We stayed in our underwear. We were walking in a straight line behind each other, Dr. Hussam at the start and the medical staff behind him. I could see Dr. Hussam, but I pretended I couldn’t see him, because I didn’t want him to feel deflated. I didn’t want to see him like this.
AMY GOODMAN: Now to a final clip from The Disappearance of Dr. Abu Safiya, including his wife Albina and his attorney Gheed Kassem. It begins with footage from Israel’s Channel 13, where Dr. Abu Safiya was seen for the first time since his imprisonment.
INTERVIEWER: Monsieur, how are you?
DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: Fine.
INTERVIEWER: You are a doctor of Kamal Adwan, right?
DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: Yes.
GHEED KASSEM: [translated] Everything that a detainee eats per day does not exceed a thousand calories.
ALBINA ABU SAFIYA: [translated] His weight was around 90 to 95 kilograms. His lawyer told us that he now weighs 60 kilograms. What did they do to him for him to get to this point?
GHEED KASSEM: [translated] There is a deliberate policy inside prisons to starve people there. They want to make an example out of them. I don’t know if the prison administration deals with the detainees like they’re truly human beings.
INTERVIEWER: You have seen the hostages, our hostages, Israeli hostages?
DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: [translated] What is he saying?
TRANSLATOR: [translated] Did you see the Israeli hostages?
DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: [translated] No, no, no. My work is mainly with children. I’m a pediatrician.
ALBINA ABU SAFIYA: [translated] They interrogated the doctor a lot.
GHEED KASSEM: [translated] Most of the questions that they asked Dr. Hussam in the interrogation were about his work at Kamal Adwan and about the hostages and fighters.
ALBINA ABU SAFIYA: [translated] After all the beating, all the torture and all the interrogation, they still weren’t able to pin anything on him.
GHEED KASSEM: [translated] Even when the intelligence services come to talk to him sometimes, they say, “We have nothing on you. But despite this, you are being held, detained, and we’re still interrogating you.”
INTERVIEWER: Why are you here?
DR. HUSSAM ABU SAFIYA: [translated] I don’t know. I really don’t know.
AMY GOODMAN: Excerpts from Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines documentary The Disappearance of Dr. Abu Safiya. We go right now to Amel Guettatfi, who is the director of this film. We only have a few minutes. If you can talk about the last time the doctor was seen, a head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, particularly known for its care for children, and how it’s possible that he has been held without charge, without trial, and what you know of his whereabouts now and his condition?
AMEL GUETTATFI: Of course. Dr. Abu Safiya now is in Ofer Prison. That is a prison in occupied West Bank. According to B’Tselem, there, there’s clearly a policy of torture and beating and abuse at the prison there. He’s been held for over 250 days without formal charges and without any due trial. The only person that’s been able to visit him is his lawyer, and that’s because she’s fighting very, very hard to get those visitations. He has really awful conditions, that have been documented by multiple organizations that show you that there is an organized and declared policy of the prison authorities to treat the 2,600 detainees that are inside these prisons poorly.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Dr. Azra Zyada, you were in touch with Dr. Abu Safiya every day for months. Your final thoughts, both on the film as well as on his condition now?
DR. AZRA ZYADA: So, I think the film really exposes and captures the process and the blueprint that Israel uses to attack and decommission hospitals. And I think the film is the most pertinent at this moment in time, because this blueprint is being used right now across Gaza. However, it’s not really under the limelight, and it’s not as exposed as it was when Dr. Abu Safiya was in Kamal Adwan.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us. Dr Azra Zyada, we thank you so much, London-based medical doctor, healthcare systems analyst, who’s helped gather evidence of war crimes from Gaza and has been in touch with a network of doctors and healthcare workers in Gaza, including Dr. Abu Safiya. And thank you so much to Amel Guettatfi, who is the director of this documentary, The Disappearance of Dr. Abu Safiya, which is available online. We’ll link to the whole documentary.
That does it for our show. Democracy Now! is produced with Mike Burke, Nicole Salazar. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
