Released Gaza prisoners say they were held at notorious torture camp with Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 16 January 2025:
He entered the cell at Sde Teiman, Israel’s notorious torture camp, with his hands and feet tied and his eyes blindfolded. He showed signs of fatigue, exhaustion, and psychological distress. As soon as the Israeli soldier brought him into the cell and untied him, the other prisoners from the northern Gaza Strip recognized him immediately and approached to assist him. He was. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the Director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.
Dr. Abu Safiya was detained by Israeli soldiers after a deadly raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital on December 27, 2024. Since his detention, Israeli officials have not confirmed his exact whereabouts, or released information about his condition. Dr. Abu Safiya’s unknown whereabouts have led to wide speculation about his fate, with many, including his family, fearing that he is being subjected to abuse by the Israeli military due to his high public profile.
Early reports by Al Jazeera suggested Dr. Abu Safiya was being held at Sde Teiman, a prison camp in the desert that has been the site of ‘systematic torture’ of Palestinian detainees, according to human rights groups. Last week, Mondoweiss spoke to recently released detainees who corroborated those reports, saying that they were held in the same cell as Dr. Abu Safiya at Sde Teiman in the first hours of his detention.
“Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya arrived at the cell late at night, around 10 pm on December 27 in Sde Teiman military prison. We know Dr. Hussam as a stately and respectable man, but he arrived at the prison in an indescribable state. The army humiliated him,” says Muhammad Ramlawi, 38, a resident from Jabalia who was released last Friday after 70 days in Israeli detention.
Ramlawi was amongst a group of prisoners who were detained during Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign of northern Gaza last fall. Periodically throughout its genocidal assault, Israel will release prisoners in batches back into Gaza after months of detention and torture.
Mondoweiss spoke to Ramlawi and a number of other prisoners upon their release into southern Gaza via the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing. The former prisoners say they were in the same cell with Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya during the first days of his detention, following Israel’s attack on the Kamal Adwan Hospital and the abduction of Dr. Abu Safiya.
Ramlawi says he and his fellow prisoners immediately recognized Dr. Abu Safiya, who is a notable and revered figure in northern Gaza, and that they “tried not to stress” the doctor, offering him what little food they had, and suggesting he rest.
“We grabbed him and said to him, ‘Come on doctor, let’s help you rest a little,’ and as soon as we grabbed him, his eyes filled with tears, and he said to us, ‘The army has humiliated me, it has abused me,’” Ramlawi told Mondoweiss.