A Palestinian pediatrician who ran a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip and wrote articles critical of Israel in The New York Times has been identified as a Hamas colonel
He is Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who headed the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya.
The Israel Defense Forces arrested the doctor on December 27, 2024, during an operation at the hospital, which, according to the Israeli army, functioned as an important base for the Hamas terrorist group.
He has been detained in an Israeli prison ever since.
A military spokesperson confirmed that Abu Safiya holds a high-ranking position within the organization.
Although this connection to Hamas has been known in Arab media outlets for years, the doctor was invited to publish two opinion columns in The New York Times.
In these articles, he accused Israel of causing suffering to the civilian population, provoking fuel shortages in hospitals, and attacking the health system in Gaza.
In one passage, he wrote that “we are suffering and paying the price for the genocide happening to our people in the northern Gaza Strip,” without ever mentioning his affiliation with Hamas.
Recent investigations, conducted by researchers such as Vincent Chebat of the NGO Monitor, have brought to light concrete evidence of this affiliation.
A 2016 photo shows Abu Safiya in uniform alongside high-ranking Hamas commanders, including figures from the military medical and national security sectors.
Older social media posts, including those from official Gaza medical services pages, already referred to him as “Colonel Hussam Abu Safiya.”
Shortly after the October 7, 2023 attacks, the doctor posted a message on his Facebook account celebrating the event, with a religious quote and an image of the incident.
Despite this, international organizations such as Amnesty International launched campaigns calling for his immediate release, describing him as a healthcare professional arbitrarily detained and a “hero.” The city of Lyon, France, even granted him honorary citizenship, highlighting his courage and leadership in Gaza’s health system.
The revelation of his military post raises questions about how media platforms and humanitarian organizations evaluate the people they defend or support.
According to the researcher who exposed the case, a simple internet search would have been enough to discover the connection to Hamas, suggesting that more care should be taken when presenting someone as a victim or hero in international contexts.
Published in 02/02/2026 09h33
Text adapted by AI (Grok) and translated via Google API in the English version. Images from public image libraries or credits in the caption.
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