A Gaza doctor who sharply criticised Israel in two New York Times opinion essays is allegedly a colonel in Hamas, The New York Post reported, citing the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the Jerusalem-based watchdog group NGO Monitor.
Israeli officials and the watchdog group say Hussam Abu Safiya was photographed wearing a Hamas military camouflage uniform at a 2016 ceremony marking the completion of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The images, cited by NGO Monitor, were posted on the Facebook page of Gaza Medical Services, an organization overseen by Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
According to the post, the event was attended by senior Hamas figures, including Gen. Abu Obaida Al-Jarrah, Military Medical Services director Saeed Saoudi, and National Security Forces commander Col. Naeem Al-Ghoul.
Following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people and triggered the ongoing war in Gaza, Abu Safiya authored two op-eds in The New York Times, published on October 29, 2023, and December 2, 2024, condemning Israel’s military campaign.
In one essay, he wrote: “We are suffering and paying the price of the genocide that is happening to our people here in the northern Gaza Strip.”
The publication of the essays drew criticism from commentators who accused major media outlets of amplifying the views of an alleged Hamas operative.
“Those who platformed Abu Safiya must do some serious soul-searching and figure out how they ended up promoting the propaganda of a literal Hamas terrorist,” said Vincent Chebat, a senior researcher at NGO Monitor.
In both op-eds, The New York Times identified Abu Safiya as a “pediatrician and the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.” Neither Abu Safiya nor the newspaper disclosed any alleged ties to Hamas.
Who is Hussam Abu Safiya?
Hussam Abu Safiya is a Palestinian paediatrician who served as the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital during the Gaza war. Israeli authorities allege that he holds the rank of colonel within Hamas, a designation that Palestinian media outlets have reportedly used when referring to him. He is also described as a colonel in a 2020 Facebook post published by Gaza Strip Medical Services, according to NGO Monitor.
After the Gaza war began in October 2023, Kamal Adwan Hospital came under repeated Israeli military sieges, starting in December 2023. The IDF accused the facility of sheltering Hamas members, an allegation denied by hospital officials. During the fighting, Hussam Abu Safiya and his family moved into the hospital, where he continued to oversee operations despite severe shortages and repeated interrogations by Israeli forces.
In October 2024, the hospital was subjected to near-constant bombardment until its evacuation in December. Abu Safiya was briefly detained on October 25, 2024, before being released the same day. That day, his 15-year-old son was killed in a drone strike near the hospital. In November, Abu Safiya was injured in another strike but remained at the hospital until its closure.
The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed that Abu Safiya was arrested during the war on suspicion of “involvement in terrorist activities.” He was not formally charged and was later released, the IDF said. However, his current whereabouts remain unclear.
Neither NGO Monitor nor Israeli authorities have accused Abu Safiya of participating directly in any specific terrorist attacks.
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