Occupied Quds - Saba:
Lawyer Ghaid Qassem from occupied Nazareth on Monday revealed the suffering experienced by the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, the captive doctor Hussam Abu Safia, who was arrested by the Zionist enemy army during its siege of the hospital.
According to the Palestinian Safa Agency, Lawyer Qassem was able, last Thursday, to visit Dr. Abu Safia, who has been detained for more than 70 days in "Ofer" prison, west of Ramallah, after spending about 14 days in the notorious "Sde Teiman" prison.
The enemy authorities arrested Dr. Abu Safia on 12/27/2024, from Kamal Adwan Hospital in the North Gaza Governorate, along with many workers, doctors and citizens.
Lawyer Qassem quoted Abu Safiya's statement, saying: "From the moment of his arrest, Abu Safiya was transferred to the notorious Sde Teiman prison, and was isolated for 14 days. Later, he was transferred to Ofer prison and isolated for 25 days. After the isolation, he was transferred to Section 24 with the rest of the Gazan detainees, which is one of the two sections that contain detainees from Gaza, in addition to Section 23, in an attempt to isolate them from the rest of the detainees and prisoners from the West Bank and inside Israel."
Regarding the investigation with Abu Safiya, Qassem explained that "the longest period of investigation that Abu Safiya was subjected to was for 13 consecutive days, and each investigation lasted from eight to ten hours, and during all of these periods he was subjected to continuous and very ugly abuse, torture, and assaults."
Regarding the first thing Abu Safiya asked about during the meeting with Qassem, she said: “Two months before his arrest, Abu Safiya’s son was martyred in Gaza, and due to the situation, he was unable to bury him properly in a cemetery, so he was temporarily buried near Kamal Adwan Hospital. When the meeting began, his main concern and first question was whether the body had been transferred and his son buried properly and honorably or not, in addition to the issue of losing his mother who died ten days after his arrest.”
Regarding the extent of Abu Safiya’s knowledge of the resonance caused by his story of steadfastness in the hospital and his arrest, Qassem said that “Abu Safiya did not know that his case had received all this local, Arab and international media attention. They are almost completely isolated inside the prison, and they do not know what is happening outside or the developments taking place in Gaza.”
Regarding the scenes of torture and oppression that Abu Safiya narrated to Qasim, she said: “If we talk about the Sde Timan prison, it is a slaughterhouse in every sense of the word. The torture, violations and starvation there are unprecedented. We are talking about prisoners who have been shackled for ten months, prisoners whose limbs have been amputated without treatment, elderly prisoners who are shackled and blindfolded, prisoners who have lost 70-90 kilograms of their weight, in addition to the issue of the bitter cold, as the prisoners are in open cages, meaning that they are exposed to wind and rainwater, and they are forced to sit on the ground at all times and are prevented from talking to each other, and are prevented from praying and reading the Quran.”
The lawyer continued: "In addition to the psychological torment after the intelligence services provided information to the prisoner that his entire family was martyred, regardless of whether the information is correct or not, the prisoner inside the prison is completely isolated and has no source of information or news unless he is allowed to be visited, and this information leaves a huge negative impact on the prisoner who is already suffering from the consequences of torture."
Regarding the report prepared by the Zionist Channel 13 and the appearance of Abu Safia during it, Qassem said: "Abu Safia was surprised by the filming that took place, he was not informed and did not know that there was filming, nor did the parties that filmed him, and after the meeting they isolated him and he was subjected to insults, beatings, blackmail and torture."
Regarding Abu Safiya's legal status, she added: "The Zionist enemy authorities tried to turn Abu Safiya's file into a regular security file with the aim of presenting an indictment. After a series of investigations and harsh torture to make him fall into any suspicion they could base the indictment on, and after more than 45 days they were unable to find any suspicion against him, they returned his file to its original definition (illegal combatant). The file of an illegal combatant has no rights, whether they are representation rights or an indictment, and every time the decision to extend the detention is renewed."
Qassem concluded her speech by saying that "at the end of the visit, I left Abu Safiya in high spirits, and he stressed the message and sentence that (a person is history, and his history is a position that is established and studied)."
It is noteworthy that last month, the Zionist media published a video clip of the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, from inside the prison, for the first time since December 27, 2024. Dr. Abu Safiya appeared with his hands and feet tied and looking exhausted and tired, during an interview with the Zionist Channel 13 from inside the prison.
This came a few days after the enemy authorities decided to transfer Dr. Abu Safiya to detention under the title of "illegal combatant", and revealed that he was subjected to torture, abuse and medical neglect.
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