Gaza hospital director admits hostages were kept at the facility

IDF on arresting Safiya, ‘We discovered that the individual orchestrating the terror and Hamas activities within the compound, was the hospital director himself.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

A hospital director arrested on suspicion of being a high-ranking Hamas member admitted that hostages were held at the facility.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested in late December alongside hundreds of other terrorists.

IDF soldiers discovered extensive Hamas infrastructure at the Kamal Adwan Hospital and suspected Safiya of being a Hamas colonel.

Safiya denied being a member of Hamas, despite evidence to the contrary. However, he admitted that hostages were kept at the hospital.

When questioned, he claimed they were there to receive medical treatment, though freed hostages who had sustained injuries in captivity reported that they did not receive proper care.

In January 2025, an IDF interrogation of Hamas terrorists revealed that the terror group had full control of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabaliya, Gaza.

Israel’s Unit 504 investigators discovered that the hospital director was involved in planning and coordinating terrorist activity and that Hamas terrorists planned to escape from the hospital in ambulances when the IDF raid began.

The IDF and Shin Bet, Israel’s security forces, raided the hospital last Friday based on intelligence that terrorists were using the hospital as a headquarters.

Approximately 240 Hamas terrorists were arrested in the raid, including many who participated in the October 7 massacre.

An IDF reservist described his interrogation of a Hamas terrorist, who admitted that the hospital director was central in directing terrorist activity.

The reservist said, “We discovered that the individual at the center of the event, orchestrating the terror and Hamas activities within the compound, was the hospital director himself.”

The reservist added that Dr. Abu Safiya, the hospital director, “strutted around like a peacock, certain that he wouldn’t be arrested and fully convinced he was in control of the situation.”

A second reservist confirmed that the hospital director was indeed a member of Hamas. Abu Safiya “really did walk around like a peacock,” he said. “He watched as his doctors were implicated one by one, still convinced he wouldn’t face arrest.”

He added, “But we soon saw through his disguise—it was nothing more than a facade. They were terrorists, with blood on their hands. The hospital director finally realized that the entire ruse had unraveled, and in the end, he too was arrested.”