On 1 May 2024, I met Palestinian paediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, in Gaza.
Two years later, he is at imminent risk of being killed in Israel’s notorious Nitzan Prison, after being held captive for more than 550 days.
On that day in May 2024, our ambulance crew joined a small UN convoy to travel to the north of Gaza. We had been granted a brief window to drop a Norwegian medical team at Al Awda Hospital, and then transfer patients from Kamal Adwan to the south of Gaza where they were to await evacuation.
At Al Awda we saw the signs of Israel’s repeated targeting of the hospital. The walls were pock-marked with high-calibre bullet holes. A gaping cavity remained between the third and fourth floors, caused by an Israeli strike on the hospital in November 2023 that killed three doctors and a patient companion.
We reached Kamal Adwan Hospital well after midday. Israeli soldiers had delayed us at a checkpoint at Netzarim for almost three hours, which meant we had very little time to identify and safely transfer the patients on our list.
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