Worth noting is that Abu Safiya was not included in any of the prisoner release deals given the severity of the actions attributed to him.

By David Isaac, JNS

For weeks, Hussam Abu Safiya has been portrayed as a wrongly imprisoned Gaza doctor, “the voice of besieged healthcare workers,” when he is, in fact, a Hamas colonel.

This has not stopped Abu Safiya from becoming the latest cause célèbre among anti-Israel NGOs and politicians, who have joined forces demanding his release from Israeli custody.

The campaign gained steam after Abu Safiya appeared in Israeli court via video link on July 8, and an accusation by his attorney, Nasser Odeh, who after visiting Abu Safiya in prison on July 2, claimed that his client undergoes daily torture.

Odeh said Abu Safiya had been beaten all over his body with a hammer and clubs, though there were no signs of such abuse on his head or arms, which were visible during his court appearance.

The claims of torture led to demands last week from Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (of which Odeh is a member), the U.N. Human Rights Council, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Abu Safiya’s immediate release.

Their calls have been amplified in the press by such outlets as CNN, The Guardian, and Al Jazeera, among others.

Israel arrested Abu Safiya on Dec. 27, 2024, and has held him under its Unlawful Combatants Law.

Abu Safiya served as director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The hospital itself is named after a Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist.

Israeli forces entered the hospital when it became clear it served as a Hamas terror center. An Israeli investigator told Israel’s Channel 12 in Jan. 2025, less than a week after the operation:

“More than 240 terrorists with blood on their hands were located at the scene. At least 15 of them infiltrated into Israel on Oct. 7, [2023,] and participated in the massacre.”

Abu Safiya, who has been a voice for Hamas propaganda abroad, including in The New York Times, was taken into custody during the operation. He told an investigator, “You won’t arrest me. I’m known in the world and everyone knows me. I’m a symbol.”

“A symbol of terrorism,” the investigator responded.

In a July 10 statement, Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva, in response to the international criticism, reiterated that Abu Safiya used his position at the hospital to engage in terrorist activity.

“He enabled Hamas terrorist activity against Israeli forces during IDF operations in Gaza, posing a direct threat to Israel’s national security,” according to the statement.

Under his directorship, the hospital became a Hamas terror hub. He exploited his position to redirect humanitarian aid for terrorist purposes, it said.

Worth noting is that Abu Safiya was not included in any of the prisoner release deals given the severity of the actions attributed to him, Ynet reported on July 8.

Israel’s Geneva mission also pushed back on Abu Safiya’s claims of deteriorating health, saying, “At no stage of his detention has he exhibited any indication of a life-threatening condition.”

“He remains under continuous medical supervision and receives treatment in accordance with the professional determination of medical personnel,” it said.

Israel’s U.S. Embassy posted to X on Saturday a picture of Abu Safiya in full Hamas uniform, noting, “A terrorist in a white coat is still a terrorist.”

The picture was uncovered by NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem watchdog group. It shows Abu Safiya at a ceremony marking the opening of an extension of the Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Abu Safiya served as director of the hospital after the arrest of the previous director, Ahmed al-Kahlout, by Israel in December 2023. Kahlout admitted that “Hamas has turned hospitals into military facilities under their control,” NGO Monitor reported.

NGO Monitor founder and president Prof. Gerald M. Steinberg told JNS on Monday, “The massive and highly orchestrated propaganda campaign for Abu Safiya highlights his importance to Hamas and its allies.”

Abu Safiya’s involvement in the planning and carrying out of the Oct. 7 massacre is still not yet known but evidence of his links to Hamas are clear, said Steinberg.

“Following their usual methods, the pro-terror NGO chorus, including Amnesty international and Doctors Without Borders, and their political and academic allies, erase the war crimes stemming from systematically exploiting medical facilities for war and mass killing. To the extent that Abu Safiya was responsible for these war crimes, he must be held accountable,” he said.

The post Israel pushes back on growing calls to free Gaza terror doctor appeared first on World Israel News.

According to Hamas’ Military Medical Services and Palestinian media reports, Abu Safiya holds the rank of colonel in the organization’s medical division.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital and a Hamas operative, against his continued detention.

The court’s decision and legal reasoning will not be made public because the ruling relied on classified intelligence.

The hearing was held behind closed doors, and neither Abu Safiya nor his attorney was given access to the confidential material presented to the court.

Abu Safiya, one of the most prominent Gazan detainees held by Israel, was arrested by Israeli forces in December 2024 during the war in Gaza.

He has since been held without charges and is currently in solitary confinement at Nafha Prison in southern Israel.

Israeli authorities have identified Abu Safiya as a Hamas operative.

According to Hamas’ Military Medical Services and Palestinian media reports, he holds the rank of colonel in the organization’s medical division.

Following his arrest, a photograph from 2016 emerged showing Abu Safiya wearing a Hamas uniform and seated alongside senior Hamas figures.

Another Hamas terrorist who was employed at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya told Israeli interrogators in 2025 that Gaza terror groups use the hospital because “they think it’s a safe haven.”

The Unlawful Combatants Law allows Israel to detain individuals suspected of involvement with hostile organizations or activities without filing criminal charges.

Detainees are subject to periodic judicial review, but authorities are not required to disclose classified evidence used to justify continued detention.

According to the Israeli military, 85 percent of Gaza’s hospitals have been used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for terror.

Israeli authorities have maintained that the Unlawful Combatants Law is used to prevent the release of individuals suspected of posing security risks when intelligence information cannot be disclosed in court.

More than 1,300 Palestinian detainees are currently being held under the law, according to Israeli figures.

Such detentions can initially last up to six months and may be renewed repeatedly if authorities determine that the individual continues to pose a security threat.

The post Israel Supreme Court upholds detention of Hamas-linked hospital director appeared first on World Israel News.

The Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada released its annual report on antisemitism in April, documenting a 9.3 percent increase in hate crimes last year that surpassed the previous record total of 6,219 set in 2024.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

A celebrated Jewish heart surgeon is leaving Canada to live in the US in response to rising antisemitism as well as inefficiencies in the country’s socialized health-care system, according to a new report, which came out one day after Prime Minister Mark Carney acknowledged Canada has “failed” its Jewish community.

Dr. Emmanuel Moss, the chief of cardiac surgery at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, plans to relocate to Atlanta in September amid a sharp increase in antisemitic incidents over the past three years, the Montreal Gazette first reported on Tuesday, citing sources close to the medical professional.

While Moss declined to give an interview or to explain his reasons for moving, the local outlet said that the doctor and his family had become disillusioned with what they viewed as the failure of Canadian authorities to combat a relentless wave of shootings, vandalism, firebombings, and physical targets targeting Jewish individuals and institutions.

Moss also reportedly hopes to avoid the kinds of shortages which plague Canada’s single-payer health-care system.

According to the Gazette, his own hospital lacks a full staff of specialists needed to operate complex heart-lung machines for cardiac surgery. Lengthy wait times for heart surgery present another major issue.

However, the rise in antisemitism seems to be what pushed the renowned doctor, a member of a local synagogue who has worked at the Jewish General Hospital for the past 10 years, to make the decision to leave.

“The health system issues that may have played a role in Moss deciding to leave, they didn’t just arise last week or last month or last year,” an anonymous source told the Gazette.

“The problems with the health system have existed for years, and he could have left at any time before. So, what it comes down to is the antisemitism and the feeling that this [city] has become increasingly dangerous or unrecognizable place to live.”

Dr. Louis Perrault, president of the Association des chirurgiens cardio-vasculaires et thoraciques du Québec, lamented Moss’s departure.

“He’s 45 and he’s ultra-specialized in robotic surgery,” Perrault said of Moss. “He’s in the prime of his career and he’s leaving for personal reasons and obviously for resources reasons.”

News of Moss’s decision came after Carney on Monday delivered remarks on antisemitism at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.

Noting that antisemitism across Canada has surged to levels not seen in the post-World War II era, he admitted that authorities have not done their job to protect the country’s Jewish population.

“The horror and shame are global. Our actions must be local. They start with clearly admitting that Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians,” Carney said, noting the crisis of antisemitism in Canada is “specific, severe, and demands a targeted response.”

According to the latest data, antisemitic incidents in Canada surged to a record high in 2025 for the second consecutive year, with 6,800 acts of anti-Jewish hate reported nationwide, underscoring a persistently hostile climate for Jews and Israelis across the country.

The Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada released its annual report on antisemitism in April, documenting a 9.3 percent increase in hate crimes last year that surpassed the previous record total of 6,219 set in 2024.

With an average of 18.6 incidents per day, this latest figure represents a 145.6 percent increase from 2022, before the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Our review of the past year’s antisemitic incidents must be understood as a wake-up call,” B’nai Brith Canada CEO Simon Wolle said in a statement at the time.

“Hate and extremism are a threat to Canadian democracy and civil society, not only to the Jewish community.”

The problem has shown no signs of slowing down.

Early 2026 data already indicate the country is on track to see its most violent year against the Jewish community in recent memory, with more violent antisemitic attacks recorded so far this year than during all of 2025, according to B’nai Brith Canada.

In total, 11 violent antisemitic attacks have already been recorded across the country since the start of 2026, surpassing the 10 violent incidents documented during all of last year.

“These brazen attacks on Jewish Canadians are a sign of a crisis of antisemitism that has spiraled out of control,” Wolle said last month.

“Violence such as this, which has escalated from targeting synagogues to targeting Jewish people directly, does not occur in a vacuum. It is what happens when governments fail to act despite mounting evidence that antisemitism is becoming more normalized and dangerous,” he continued.

Carney on Monday promised robust government measures to combat antisemitism, which it said would include a “while of government approach” led by a new Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality, and Inclusion.

“The protection of citizens is the most fundamental responsibility of government,” Carney said in a statement.

“As antisemitism surges in Canada, we are taking decisive action to ensure no Canadian community is driven from our shared public institutions by hatred. We are building a country where Jewish Canadians can be visibly, fully, and joyfully Jewish in public life.”

Moss’s announcement also highlights the issue of rising antisemitism specifically in the Canadian health-care system.

In December 2024, a newly releases survey commissioned by the Jewish Medical Association of Ontario (JMAO) found that antisemitism in Canada risks chasing Jewish doctors not only out of their field but also out of the country.

The data showed that 80 percent of Jewish medical workers who responded to the survey “have faced antisemitism at work” since Hamas’ Oct. 7 atrocities and that 31 percent of Jewish doctors—98 percent of whom “are worried about the impact of antisemitism on health care”—have weighed emigrating from Canada to another country.

The survey also found that, while just 1 percent of Canadian Jewish doctors experienced antisemitism in a community, hospital, or academic setting prior to Hamas’ Oct. 7 onslaught, 29 percent, 39 percent, and 43 percent said they have experienced some antisemitism in each of those settings since then, respectively.

In Ontario specifically, the findings revealed that antisemitism was widely reported within academic spaces (73 percent) and hospitals (60 percent).

Meanwhile, according to the Toronto Sun, just over 25 percent of Jewish medical students experienced academic antisemitism before October 2023, but that number spiked to 63 percent afterward.

The US health system is not immune to such anti-Jewish bigotry.

Nearly 40 percent of Jewish American health-care professionals have encountered antisemitism in the workplace, either as witnesses or victims, according to a study conducted by the Data & Analytics Department of StandWithUs, a Jewish civil rights group.

A substantial number of the 645 Jewish health workers who responded to its questions also said they were subject to “social and professional isolation,” and 26.4 percent felt “unsafe or threatened.”

Outside the US, the crisis of antisemitism in health care has manifested in medical settings around the world, including in South America, Australia, and across Europe.

The post Renowned Jewish heart surgeon to leave Canada over antisemitism as PM Carney admits country has ‘failed’ its Jews appeared first on World Israel News.

Israeli officials have repeatedly said Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad exploit medical sites as cover.

By Shmuli Volkin, Jewish Breaking News

A fresh credibility fight is erupting around Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of Kamal Adwan Hospital, after the New York Post reported that the Israel Defense Forces and NGO Monitor identify him as a Hamas colonel, citing images of him in a military-style uniform at a 2016 ceremony tied to the hospital.

The allegation matters because Abu Safiya also authored two opinion essays in The New York Times attacking Israel’s Gaza campaign, and those pieces reportedly described him as a pediatrician and hospital director, without any mention of a terror-linked rank.

If the claim holds, it’s not a minor biographical footnote; it’s a case study in how a global platform can be used to launder messaging from a group that embeds itself inside civilian systems.

The wider backdrop is the battle over hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials have repeatedly said Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad exploit medical sites as cover—and specifically, the IDF has described Kamal Adwan as a recurring terror stronghold in the north.

In one flashpoint, IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani pushed back on Hamas claims about a hospital fire and warned that “running with unsubstantiated reports” reflects “questionable journalistic integrity.”

Other reporting underscores why this isn’t just a media argument.

Reuters quoted Abu Safiya describing severe conditions at the hospital while also reporting Israel’s denial of strikes in the immediate vicinity at that time, alongside Israel’s claim of ongoing coordination with hospital officials for humanitarian assistance.

Meanwhile, ABC News reported the IDF said Abu Safiya was detained on suspicion of being a Hamas operative during operations around Kamal Adwan and separately relayed the IDF claim that the hospital served as a Hamas command center—noting ABC did not see corroborating evidence attached to that statement.

There’s also open-source context being used to support the “rank” allegation.

Ynet reported that open-source material indicates Abu Safiya held a colonel rank and said the hospital has been described as part of Hamas’s “Military Medical Services Directorate,” pointing to a past CNN report and older imagery describing the facility as serving personnel tied to Gaza’s internal security apparatus.

Israel and multiple outlets have documented that Abu Safiya was the public-facing director of a hospital at the center of repeated IDF operations and Hamas messaging; Israel has publicly alleged Hamas use of the site; and major NGOs and media have treated Abu Safiya as a symbol of Gaza’s medical crisis.

The new claim—that he carried a Hamas officer rank while being presented to Western readers purely as a doctor—is now the point of collision, and it’s exactly where editors either demand full disclosure or become part of the information war.

The post Gaza doctor who attacked Israel in NYT op-eds identified by IDF as Hamas terrorist appeared first on World Israel News.

After being erased from the medical register, Munaf posted: “Medical school teaches you to question everything and be evidence-based. Except when it comes to one event 100 years ago.”

By JNS

A former contestant on the BBC version of “The Apprentice” has been removed from the UK medical register for allegations of anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, and sexist social media activity by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service after a hearing that ran from Jan. 5 to 14.

Dr. Mohammed Asif Munaf, a 37-year-old cardiologist specialty registrar, did not attend the hearing. The tribunal published the outcome for the misconduct hearing, with an “erasure” decision.

“The tribunal found that on 36 occasions between October 2023 and July 2025, he posted or reposted material that was objectively antisemitic, racist, seriously offensive, or motivated by racial or religious hostility or prejudice,” according to medical journal The BMJ.

“Taking financial advice from a woman is akin to taking ethical advice from a Jew. I personally know hard-working men who died broke because they invested their life earnings into a project to appease their wife [sic]. Wisdom is learning from these men. And teaching your sons better,” he posted, along with “These genocidal Jews love playing victim in the midst of genocide.”

Kate Kirwin, chair of the tribunal, said that “such behavior, individually and taken as a whole, is unbecoming of a registered doctor and indicative of the fact that Dr. Munaf’s character may be unsuitable to practice in the medical profession, in part due to the determination of a deep-seated and ongoing attitudinal issue.”

After being erased from the medical register, Munaf posted: “Medical school teaches you to question everything and be evidence-based. Except when it comes to one event 100 years ago.”

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