Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Hussam Idris Amer Abu Safiya was born in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on November 21, 1973, to a displaced Palestinian family originally from the depopulated village of Hamama in the occupied Gaza Strip. He is married and has six children. He completed his primary education in UNRWA schools, obtained his high school diploma in the sciences, and earned a bachelor's degree in medicine from a university in Kazakhstan in 1998. He specialized in pediatrics and neonatology in 2004, earned a master's degree in medicine in 2007, and passed the Palestinian Medical Board exam in 2015.
He worked as a consultant physician in the Palestinian Ministry of Health in 2000, and became head of the pediatrics department at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in 2016. He was appointed director of the same hospital in 2023, and also worked as chief physician for the MedGlobal organization in Gaza City.
He led the efforts to provide medical care for children during the Al-Aqsa flood that broke out on October 7, 2023, and oversaw the expansion of the capacity of Kamal Adwan Hospital from 120 beds to 200 beds to cope with the increasing numbers of injured people. He provided field medical care under the violent bombardment carried out by the occupation army against the people of the Gaza Strip, and saved the lives of a large number of injured people despite the siege and the direct targeting of medical teams. He contributed to strengthening cooperation between local health institutions and international institutions to support medical care in light of crises, and he was constantly appearing on satellite channels and social media sites to inform the world about the tragedy that the people of the Gaza Strip experienced during the war of extermination declared by the occupation against them.
He was repeatedly offered the opportunity to leave the Gaza Strip, but he insisted on staying in his homeland and fulfilling his national and humanitarian duty to serve the sick and injured citizens. He famously said to the media: “No, by God, we will not leave them. We will stay with the last citizen in the northern Gaza Strip, no matter what it costs us.”
Abu Safiya suffered under the occupation. He worked in exceptional and extremely difficult conditions during the war of extermination waged by the occupying state on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, amid deteriorating health conditions and a severe shortage of medical supplies.
During his time managing Kamal Adwan Hospital, he was subjected to continuous investigations by the occupation forces and their intelligence services. He was subjected to ill-treatment because of his insistence on performing his humanitarian duty towards his people. He was arrested by the occupation forces for the first time on October 25, 2024. One of his sons was seriously injured, but he recovered after receiving treatment. Then his son Ibrahim was martyred as a result of an Israeli bombing that targeted the Jabalia camp on October 26, 2024.
He received his body inside the hospital, prayed the funeral prayer over him, and buried him in the hospital wall. The occupation tried to assassinate him by bombing a drone on November 23 of the same year, in which he was injured by shrapnel in his left leg, but he continued his medical work despite his injury, insisting on staying in the hospital and caring for patients until the last moment.
He was the last doctor to leave during the forced evacuation of the hospital, as he was arrested again by the occupation forces on December 27, 2024, and transferred to Sidi Teiman detention center, then transferred to Ofer detention center near Ramallah, where he was subjected to physical and psychological torture and ill-treatment. He remained in solitary confinement for twenty-five days, was denied contact with his lawyer for forty-seven days, and was denied necessary treatment, despite suffering from chronic high blood pressure, enlarged heart muscle, and an injury to his leg.
Source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To