Israel will not release Dr Hussam Abu Safiya as part of deal: Report
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<span class="field field-title">Israel will not release Dr Hussam Abu Safiya as part of deal: Report</span>
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<div class="field field-field-text"><p>Israel will not release two detained Palestinian doctors- including <span class="css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3">pediatrician </span>Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and <span class="css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3">Dr. Marwan Al Hams </span>as part of the ceasefire deal, a Hamas official told CNN.</p>
<p>Safiya was beaten and kidnapped by Israeli forces during a raid on <span class="css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3">Kamal Adwan Hospital in December last year after he refused to abandon patients under siege. </span></p>
<p><span class="css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3">Footage in the aftermath of the attack showed Safiya wearing a white medical overcoat crossing a street strewn with rubble. The Israeli military said Safiya was being held as a "suspect" and being questioned over </span>"potential involvement in terrorist activity". Safiya has been held since then without charge.</p>
<p>In July, <span style="font-weight: 400;">lawyer Ghaid Ghanem Qassem revealed that Safiya had lost over a third of weight in detention in Israel's notorious Ofer prison, was being brutally beaten and that his repeated requests for medical attention had been refused.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Dr Hossam Abu Safieh is not okay. My most recent visit to him was just a few days ago, on 9 July 2025. He has lost more than 40 kg — over a third of his weight", Qassem said in a post on Facebook.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“At the time of his arrest, he weighed 100 kilograms. Today, his weight does not exceed 60,” she said, adding that he was “severely beaten on 24 June 2025”.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“His cell in Ofer Prison — Cell 1, Section 24 — was specifically targeted. He was brutally beaten in the chest area.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Furthermore, she reported that Safiya suffers from "irregular heartbeat, and his eyeglasses, which were recently brought in through his lawyer, were broken".</span></p>
<p><span class="css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3">According to the Hamas official, Dr. Marwan Al Hams, the director </span>Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah and an official overseeing field hospitals in Gaza,<span class="css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3"> will also not be released. Al- Hams was abducted by an undercover Israeli force disguised in civilian clothing in July this year. </span></p>
<p>According to eyewitness accounts collected by the <a href="https://pchrgaza.org/pchr-condemns-abduction-of-dr-marwan-al-hams-and-holds-israel-responsible-for-his-safety/">Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR),</a> on Monday 21 July 2025, four armed individuals wearing civilian clothing raided Sea Castle Cafeteria, near the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) field hospital on al-Rasheed Coastal Street in al-Mawasi, western Rafah. They then opened fire- wounding al-Hams, and killing freelance photojournalists Tamer Rebhi Rafiq al-Za’anin and Ibrahim ‘Atef ‘Atiyah Abu ‘Asheibah.</p>
<p>PCHR said that the raid was timed with the filming of a documentary produced by al-Za’anin in collaboration with al-Hams.</p>
<p>Al-Hams was then thrown in the back of a white vehicle and driven away.<span class="css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3"> His whereabouts are currently unknown, as the Israeli authorities have failed to issue a statement confirming his detention.</span></p>
<p><span class="css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3">According to data from the Palestinian </span>Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), some 28 doctors from Gaza are being held in Israeli custody - eight of them are senior consultants in surgery, orthopaedics, intensive care, cardiology and paediatrics.</p>
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