*Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, Director of Kamal Adwan hospital*
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. I am Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Medical Hospital, which is currently under siege in the northern Gaza Strip.
We are speaking from the center of the intensive care unit, the only one in the northern Gaza Strip, after enduring over fifty days of siege. We have made appeals to the world to send medical delegations, surgical specialists, medical supplies, and even just one ambulance to the northern Gaza Strip, as well as fuel and food. Unfortunately, after the failure of the occupying army to evacuate the north, they have now begun to directly target our healthcare system.
For the past seven consecutive days, we have been bombed directly. Once, they targeted the reception and emergency departments, injuring several of our medical personnel. On another occasion, they struck the hospital yard, the generator assembly point, the oxygen station, the water network, water tanks, and the overall infrastructure.
This targeting clearly indicates that they want to hinder our ability to provide humanitarian services, which are supposed to be protected by international laws that safeguard healthcare systems and their personnel. We currently have more than twenty injured individuals here in the room. Everyone here is at risk; working inside Kamal Adwan Hospital has become increasingly dangerous.
It is evident that a new weapon has been introduced by the Israeli army, specifically a quadcopter that drops bombs containing tiny fragments that are nearly invisible to the naked eye. These projectiles penetrate the bodies of our workers, causing severe bleeding and damage to internal organs.
On behalf of myself and the staff of this healthcare system, we demand action from the world. We call upon the World Health Organization, international institutions, and the humanitarian community—those who claim to uphold democracy and humanity. We urge organizations like OCHA and all those with influence over health rights to provide international protection for our healthcare system, not only for the hospital but also for its workers.
We are committed to providing humanitarian care and will continue to do so in the northern Gaza Strip. Wherever there is a citizen in need, we will stand alongside them until we exhaust our resources. Even if we can only offer minimal assistance, we will continue to fulfill our humanitarian duty. There are both divine and earthly laws that compel the world to support this health system, which is operating under the bare minimum of resources.
Weeks ago, medical personnel were arrested, and regrettably, there has been no intervention or movement on this issue. We continue to suffer and die while the world remains silent, failing to halt the relentless bloodshed in the northern Gaza Strip. Each day, we witness the horrific suffering and bloody scenes in Kamal Adwan Hospital. We receive daily calls for help from people trapped under rubble, but unfortunately, we lack the means to rescue the injured. The next day, we are often devastated to learn that those who sought our help have become martyrs.
Tragically, many of our targeted homes have become graves for their inhabitants. This is the reality we face: a genuine campaign of extermination, targeting everything in the northern Gaza Strip, including our healthcare system.
We are targeted every day—whether by bombs, shelling, quadcopters, or Apache helicopters. We cannot understand what sin we have committed to face such violence against our healthcare system.
Once again, we urgently call on the world to stop the bloodshed occurring in the northern Gaza Strip. We demand an end to the attacks, targeting, and violence against us in a system that the entire world should protect. We ask the international community to urgently intervene in the north and stop the targeting of our healthcare system and its workers.
