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On Friday, the Israeli army abducted Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal AdwanÌý³ó´Ç²õ±è¾±³Ù²¹±ô, along with several medical staff working in the hospital, as well the wounded and others present inside the building.

Abu Safiya's abduction came after the Israeli army stormed Kamal Adwan hospital to force those present inside to evacuate under the pretext of searching for members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other armed Palestinian factions.

Before the attack into the hospital, the Israeli army launched dozens of air and shelling strikes on the houses surrounding the hospital premises and also targeted parts of the building, killing a number of medical workers and patients as well as dozens of residents hiding inside their homes nearby, according to statements by officials in the Ministry of Health.

On Saturday, the Ministry of Health officially announced that the Israeli army taken Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital in the northern Gaza Strip and took him and other medical staff to an interrogation centre.

It was an extremely difficult night for the patients and wounded who were forcibly evacuated to the Indonesian hospital in a dire and complex situation with no water, electricity, blankets, food or supplies.

Prior to the storming by Israeli forces, Kamal Adwan hospital housed about 350 people, including 75 wounded and their companions. It was the largest medical facility in northern Gaza, serving more than 400,000 people before the start of Israel's war on Gaza.

The Israeli army has besieged the hospital for more than two months as part of its military operations in northern Gaza.

Since 5 October, the Israeli army has been waging a large-scale ground operation in northern Gaza, which it says is aimed at preventing Hamas from reconstituting its ranks, while the Palestinians say it is aimed at forcibly displacing them and re-settling the coastal enclave.

Who is Hussam Abu Safia?

For more than a year, the name of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya became prominent, especially since he vocalised "humanitarian" positions and obligations to maintain treatment of the wounded and sick in northern Gaza and did not submit to the orders of the Israeli army to leave the area and save himself and his family.

Abu Safiya is said to have appreciated the love of the residents, doctors and patients and became a friend to thousands of displaced people who considered him a national Palestinian icon.

He was born on 18 November 1973 in Jabalia refugee camp to a displaced family from the town of Hamama following the Nakba in 1948. He obtained a Palestinian board certificate in paediatrics and neonatology.

Abu Safiya married his colleague Alina Abu Safiya, a Russian citizen, while studying aboard in Russia in 1996. After graduating, he returned to Gaza to help his department treat patients.

He gradually moved from one hospital to another to treat children and newborn babies.Ìý

Since the Israeli army launched its war on Gaza, Abu Safiya refused to leave the coastal enclave or even evacuate his house and hospital in the north.Ìý

In late October, the Israeli army stormed the hospital of Kamal Adwan and arrested Abu Safiya. When the military released him, he was discovered that the Israel army killed his son, Ibrahim.Ìý

Still, he refused to leave the hospital and decided to continue his "humanitarian mission" by treating the wounded and other patients, even with the lack of medical staff and resources.Ìý

On 23 November, the Israeli army wounded Abu Safiya in a quadcopter attacked on part of the hospital while he was moving inside it.Ìý

Medical sources said that the Israeli attack resulted in him being hit by six shrapnel that penetrated the thigh area and ruptured veins and arteries.

On 27 December, the Israeli forces stormed the hospital and arrested him.

Munir al-Barash, the Director General of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, accused Israel of deceiving the medical staff by suggesting they would be able to go to the Indonesian hospital. Ultimately, the Israel army took them to another place and arrested them all, including Hussam Abu Safiya.

Al-Barash noted that the Israeli army had beaten Abu Safiya with batons and sticks after forcing him to take off his clothes and dressed him in prisoner clothes, adding that the Israeli military used him as a human shield.Ìý

His whereabouts are unknown

Recently, the Israeli army released several detainees, some of whom confirmed that they saw Abu Safiya inside the Israeli jails, but they provided different narratives.Ìý

Of the released, some told °®Âþµº that they saw him in Ofer Prison in Israel, while others said that the Israeli army is detaining Abu Safiya in the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp.

However, according to Albina Abu Safiya, Hussam's wife, his family has not received any official information about his whereabouts until now.Ìý

"The only thing that I am sure about is that the Israeli army tortured my husband even though he was wounded," Albina remarked to TNA.Ìý

"My husband did not commit any crime to be arrested this way. All he cared about was helping the wounded and sick and saving their lives, despite the lack of the necessary medical capabilities for that, at a time when Israel continues to target everything in northern Gaza," she said.

"My husband did everything he could to save the lives of the injured [...] I personally saw injured people whose limbs were torn to pieces, and because there were not enough surgeons to accommodate all these cases, my husband, who specialised in paediatrics, in addition to internal medicine doctors, volunteered to perform surgeries and help people," she added.ÌýÌý

She called on the international community, human rights organisations, and the World Health Organisation to pressure Israel to release her husband and allow him to return to work "because Gaza needs him. He is the doctor who treated thousands in difficult conditions and with limited capabilities."