Dr Hussam Abu Safiya - Part 1
He moved his family into the hospital to keep it running. This is who he is. Before they took him.
Born in Jabalia refugee camp. Trained as a paediatrician in Kazakhstan. Returned to Gaza to save its children. Moved his family into Kamal Adwan Hospital to keep it running under siege. Refused every evacuation order. Arrested December 27 2024. Held without charge for over 530 days.
Jabalia refugee camp · North Gaza · Born 197302 / 07
Born in a refugee camp. His family displaced in 1948. He became a doctor for the children of the same land.
Hussam Idris Abu Safiya was born on November 21 1973 in the Jabalia refugee camp, North Gaza. His family originally came from the Palestinian town of Hamama, depopulated during the 1948 Nakba.
He left Gaza to study medicine at Ahmet Yassawi University in Turkistan, Kazakhstan. While there he met and married Elbina, a Kazakh woman.
He returned to Gaza as a qualified paediatrician and neonatologist. He came back to the place that displaced his family to save its children.
Source: Wikipedia, Hussam Abu Safiya · ABC News, "When am I going home?" June 2026
Paediatrician · Neonatologist · MedGlobal Chicago · Director Feb 202403 / 07
He chose the smallest patients. Premature newborns. The ones who could not speak for themselves.
He became head of the paediatric department at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, north Gaza, then lead physician for MedGlobal, a Chicago-based nonprofit, developing nutritional stabilisation centres across Gaza.
He was appointed director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in February 2024. He was the most senior medical voice still operating in northern Gaza.
Source: Wikipedia, Hussam Abu Safiya · MedGlobal documentation
Kamal Adwan · Last functioning hospital in north Gaza04 / 07
Premature babies. Children under bombardment. He refused every order to leave while a single patient remained.
Following the outbreak of war in October 2023, Kamal Adwan Hospital came under IDF siege in December 2023 and again in May 2024. By October 2024 it was under near-constant bombardment.
Abu Safiya moved his entire family into the hospital permanently. When Israeli forces ordered him to evacuate he told them: "There were only patients inside. With the severe shortage of doctors I could not abandon them."
Kamal Adwan was one of the last still-functioning hospitals in north Gaza. His presence kept it operational.
Source: NBC News December 23 2024 · Wikipedia, Abu Safiya · MedGlobal November 2024
December 2023 to December 2024 · One year under siege05 / 07
One year. Multiple sieges. Constant bombardment. One light on in the window. Him.
First siege December 2023. Second May 2024. Near-constant bombardment from October 2024. Generators kept the hospital alive on dwindling fuel.
He briefed international media by phone from inside the compound. On December 23 2024, four days before his arrest, he told NBC News sniper fire and tank shells had damaged the hospital's nursery and maternity ward.
Source: NBC News December 23 2024 · MedGlobal statement November 2024
Instagram · Daily documentation · November to December 202406 / 07
He documented daily life at the hospital on Instagram. His son called him a citizen journalist.
Between November 2024 and December 27 2024, Abu Safiya posted daily to Instagram documenting conditions at Kamal Adwan.
His son Elyas told ABC News: "My father believed that international pressure was the only hope left. He thought social media was the only way he could get the help he needed for the innocent children at Kamal Adwan Hospital."
Source: ABC News June 2026 · Elyas Abu Safiya, on record
The question. Not a claim.07 / 07
Born in a refugee camp. Became a doctor for its children. Refused to leave while patients remained. What happened to him on December 27 2024?
Tomorrow: his son Ibrahim killed by a drone on October 25. Shrapnel wounds on November 23. December 27. The image that went around the world. And what has happened in the 530 days since.
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
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