The final moment of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya before he was arrested by Israeli forces during a violent operation on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has gone viral on social media.
The facility’s director, who has repeatedly warned about the precarious situation in the hospital and north Gaza, was seen wearing his medical coat as he walked towards an Israeli tank, indicating that he had continued working and supporting his medical staff at the hospital despite Israel's persistent attacks.
The doctor was dubbed as "brave" for appearing to surrender to the Israeli army.
He can also be seen standing amid rubble; a sign of the extent of Israel's attacks and destruction of the area.
Dr. Abu Safiya was detained by Israeli forces on Saturday following an intensified raid on the medical facility which began on Friday and saw forces set different departments alight, damaging equipment and endangering the lives of patients and medical staff.
The doctor said he was being beaten by soldiers in the aftermath, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
: "In just one image, we see both the power of Palestinian humanity and the moral weakness of all of those complicit in genocide," before calling on the UK to end all arms sales to Israel.
Several activists have made urgent pleas for his release. Others, such as the Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine group, have raised concerns over his safety and fate, saying the incident "sounds remarkably like what happened" with Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, a renowned surgeon at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, who was tortured to death in April this year after being detained.
Dr. Abu Safiya’s arrest was confirmed by both the Gaza health ministry and the Gaza civil defence agency, whose director for the north, Ahmed Hassan al-Kahlout was also detained.
"The occupation forces have taken dozens of the medical staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital to a detention centre for interrogation, including the director, Hussam Abu Safiya," the health ministry said in a statement.
In the days leading up to the operation on Kamal Adwan, Dr. Abu Safiya had issued repeated warnings concerning the facility.
On Monday, he issued a statement accusing Israel of targeting the hospital "with the intent to kill and forcibly displace the people inside".
On Thursday, he said five staff members of the hospital had been killed in an Israeli strike near the facility.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that Abu Safiya had been detained on "suspicion of being a Hamas operative". The army also claimed that the hospital and its vicinity were being used as Hamas's "command centre" for operations, which has been denied by the Palestinian group.
Israel has repeatedly claimed hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza were "command centres" for Palestinian fighters, a pretext it had used for attacking them - without providing any evidence for the claims.
Later on Saturday, the World Health Organization announced that the facility was "now empty" and out of service.
"This morning's raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has put this last major health facility in north Gaza out of service. Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid," the WHO said on X.
Kamal Adwan was the last of three medical facilities on the northern edge of Gaza.
The operation comes as Israel continues its military operation in northern Gaza dubbed the 'General’s Plan', which seeks to rid the area of its Palestinian residents, in an ethnic cleansing campaign.
The operation, ongoing since October, has killed at least 3,700 Palestinians, displacing and injuring thousands more.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed at least 45,514 Palestinians since October 7 last year in acts labelled as genocidal.