THE fight for Palestinian justice is critical in the “dangerous and unstable” coming year, the government was warned today as campaigners announced a new wave of mobilisations.
Thousands in Gaza entered 2025 battling to survive as Israel continued its ethnic cleansing campaign, blocking off aid and decimating medical facilities and shelters.
The Labour leadership has remained silent on the destruction of northern Gaza’s last functioning hospital, Kamal Adwan, last Friday.
The government continues to hold 330 active arms licences permitting exports to Israel, including for components for lethal F-35 jets that have dropped 2,000lb bombs on the innocent people of Gaza.
Campaigners from across the peace movement have pledged to intensify their efforts this year, pressing the government for a full arms embargo.
A spokeswoman for the Stop the War Coalition said: “As Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank continues in real time, we will not give up our fight for justice for Palestine and for ending this government’s complicity in genocide.
UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
Kamal Adwan Hospital Director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya approaches the open door of an Israel Defense Forces tank after an Israeli raid on the facility, in Beit Lahia on December 28, 2024. (Photo: Channel 14 screen grab)
“Bombing of hospitals and kidnapping, torturing, and killing doctors and healthcare workers is illegal and immoral and a crime according to the Genocide Convention,” asserted Doctors for Humanity.
Human rights defenders in the global medical community and beyond are demanding Israel immediately release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Gaza’s obliterated Kamal Adwan Hospital, who was seized by Israeli troops on Saturday and is believed to be imprisoned at a notorious detention center where dozens of detainees have died and where torture, rape, and other abuses have been reported.
“We appeal to world leaders, to the global medical community, and to all who value humanity: Help us save our friend, our colleague, and a true healer,” Dr. Karameh Kuemmerle, a Boston-based pediatric neurologist and co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide, told Common Dreams on Monday.
“Put all kinds of pressure to ensure his release so he can return to his patients, who need him desperately, and to his family, who cannot endure this pain,” Kuemmerle added. “We demand a reality that respects life, respects human rights, and respects every man, woman, and child for humanity’s sake.”
Doctors for Humanity—a coalition of groups including Global Health Coalition, Doctors Against Genocide, and Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations—said in a statement Monday, “We the medical community demand the immediate release of Dr. Abu Safiya and an immediate end to the bombing of hospitals and targeted kidnapping and killing of healthcare workers in Gaza.”
“Bombing of hospitals and kidnapping, torturing and killing doctors and healthcare workers is illegal and immoral and a crime according to the Genocide Convention,” Doctors for Humanity added.
Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and co-founder the Illinois-based NGO MedGlobal, for whom Safiya works as lead Gaza physician, said over the weekend that “Dr. Abu Safiya has dedicated his life to protecting the health and lives of children in Gaza, providing care under conditions no medical professional should have to endure.”
“His arrest is not only unjust—it is a violation of international humanitarian law, which upholds the protection of medical personnel in conflict zones,” the group added. “We urgently call for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Abu Safiya.”
Dr. Yipeng Ge—who in November 2023 was suspended from his medical residency at the University of Ottawa for social media posts critical of Israel’s “settler-colonialism” and “apartheid upon Palestinian people”—called for Abu Safiya’s “immediate release,” as well as “protection of hospitals and medical workers in Gaza” and “an end to the genocide” there.
Amnesty International secretary-general Agnès Callamard hailed Abu Safiya as “the voice of Gaza’s decimated health sector,” who pleaded “for the protection of his hospital” while “working under inhumane conditions, including following the killing of his son” by an Israeli drone strike at the hospital gates earlier this year.
“We at Amnesty are extremely concerned over the fate and well-being of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya,” Callamard said. “He must be released immediately and unconditionally.”
Recently released former detainees at the Sde Teiman prison in Israel’s Negev Desert said Abu Safiya is being held there, and that the Israeli security forces working there—some of whom stand accused of gang-raping a prisoner—are treating captured Palestinian doctors “really badly.”
Idrees Abu Safiya, Abu Safiya’s son, toldThe Guardian on Monday that his father’s leg was badly injured during the Israeli raid on the hospital.
“We are so worried, we haven’t been able to sleep for three days because we didn’t know until today where he is,” Idrees told the British newspaper.
Relatives of Abu Safiya toldCNN that “Sde Teiman is known for brutality and torture, we can’t imagine what our father is going through in that place and if he is well or not, warm or cold… hungry or in pain.”
The last photo of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, detained after refusing to abandon his colleagues and patients.In just one image, we see both the power of Palestinian humanity and the moral weakness of all those complicit in genocide.End all arms sales to Israel, now.
Kuemmerle told Common Dreams: “What is striking about Dr. Abu Safiya is his extraordinary composure, kindness, and unwavering dedication, even in the face of unimaginable hardships. We have come to know his bravery, dedication, humane professionalism, and gentle manners. We are terrified for his fate, knowing all too well as Palestinians the horrors that await our doctors in these torture camps.”
Israel claims that Abu Safiya—who, despite the killing of his son and an injury caused by shrapnel from a November 23 Israeli attack on Kamal Adwan, refused to stop working at the hospital—is a suspected Hamas terrorist. That’s a common allegation made by Israeli officials, who also often claim that hospitals are used as Hamas command-and-control centers. These officials usually offer very little if any evidence to support their assertions.
“The lies that are being spread right now that [Abu Safiya] is really a Hamas colonel are lies to prevent what is happening right now, which is a global wave of outrage, and that global wave of outrage must grow so we, the global medical community, can stop the relentless attacks on healthcare workers and healthcare infrastructure,” Dr. Rupa Marya, a University of California, San Francisco professor of medicine who’s currently on paid suspension after questioning whether an Israeli student and likely Israel Defense Forces (IDF) veteran may have committed war crimes, told Common Dreams.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, hundreds of healthcare workers have been detained and more than 1,000 have been killed since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Critics accuse Israel of deliberately killing and wounding health workers.
The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor on Saturday published the testimonies of witnesses to alleged IDF war crimes during the Kamal Adwan raid, including “deliberate killings, field executions, as well as sexual and physical assaults on women and girls from medical teams and displaced women in the area.”
Responding to Israeli attacks on hospitals and Abu Safiya’s detention, Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns at London-based Medical Aid for Palestinians, said on the Bluesky social media platform Saturday that “our leaders must demand the immediate and safe release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and all detained Gaza health workers.”
“Health workers are not a target,” he added, “and impunity for Israel’s destruction of Palestinian healthcare must end.”
Palestinians living in the area inspect the area among the rubbles of destroyed buildings following an Israeli attack on Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza on December 27, 2024 [Dawoud Abo Alkas – Anadolu Agency]
A group of UN experts on Monday said that Israel “must face the consequences” of its campaign to undermine the legal framework for the protection of civilians in armed conflicts as the military aggression continues unabated, Anadolu Agency reports.
“As we have repeatedly reminded Israel, international humanitarian law comprises a set of universal and binding rules to protect civilian objects and persons who are not, or are no longer, directly participating in hostilities and limits permissible means and methods of warfare,” the experts said in a statement.
“Rather than abide by these rules, Israel has openly defied international law time and again, inflicting maximum suffering on civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory and beyond,” they added.
Citing Israel’s international law violations, the experts said Tel Aviv committed “crimes against humanity including murder, torture, sexual violence, and repeated forced displacement amounting to forcible transfer, war crimes encompassing indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, including objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population and educational institutions and cultural heritage, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, the targeting of healthcare workers and health facilities, attacks on humanitarian workers, arbitrary restrictions on access to humanitarian aid, and attacks on journalists, collective punishment and perfidy.”
“Political and judicial actors must consider the totality of such acts against the entire civilian population under Israeli occupation, who are protected persons and do not constitute military objectives under international law,” they said. “Acts aimed at their destruction in whole or in part are genocidal.”
Israel “grievously” violated its obligations as an occupying power, the experts said, regarding the situation in northern Gaza.
“Indiscriminate attacks, including on shelters for displaced persons and the Kamal Adwan Hospital and its vicinity, and the intensification of siege conditions on northern Gaza for the last three months run contrary to Israel’s legal duty to ensure the protection of the civilian population,” they said.
“We are disturbed that this siege, coupled with expanding evacuation orders, appears intended to permanently displace the local population as a precursor to Gaza’s annexation in further violation of international law.”
Although Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory was labeled “unlawful” by the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister, the experts said: “Nonetheless, Israel continues to face no real consequences, largely due to protection offered by its allies, who have gone so far as to join Israel in delegitimizing international institutions and besmirching Special Procedures mandate-holders.”
The experts reiterated the urgency of allowing independent and thorough investigations of serious violations of international law.
“Israel’s continued impunity sends a dangerous message suggesting that parties to other conflicts around the world need not comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law,” they said. “We cannot afford to lose the force of the multilateral system. Israel and its leaders must be held accountable.”
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
Peace campaigners blast government for ‘aiding and abetting’ Israel’s genocide in Gaza while announcing extra millions to prosecute Russian war criminals
THE British government was accused of “hypocrisy and double standards” today after announcing extra millions in funding to prosecute Russian war criminals in Ukraine while arming Israel’s criminal genocide in Gaza.
The Ministry of Defence said that it is to give £4.5 million to support Ukrainian documentation, investigation and prosecution of Russian war crimes.
The money comes on top of £6.2m previously committed.
…
Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German told the Morning Star: “The reek of hypocrisy and double standards coming from Whitehall has rarely been stronger.
“This latest announcement is about the most brazen yet. It is giving millions to investigate Russian war crimes while at the same time is aiding and abetting the war criminal [Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu by providing weapons, military support and political succour to a government committing genocide against the Palestinians.
“If David Lammy wants to do the right thing he should stop arming Israel and demand a complete cessation to Israel’s attacks on Yemen, Lebanon and Syria as well as his ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank.”
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
Scenes from Israel’s siege on Kamal Adwan Hospital. On the left, the last photo of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya as he walks towards Israeli tanks. On the right, IOF forced health workers and patients to strip and evacuate the hospital. Photo: Screenshots
As part of its ethnic cleansing policies, Israel continues to systematically target medical facilities and health workers across the Gaza strip.
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) set Kamal Adwan Hospital on fire on Friday, December 27, putting the largest medical facility in the northern part of the besieged enclave out of service. Kamal Adwan is located in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip and was one of the last functioning hospitals in the area.
According to the Director of Gaza’s Health Ministry, Munir al-Bursh, the IOF ordered 350 people including 75 patients and their escorts along with 185 medical staff to evacuate the hospital, and move to a nearby school sheltering displaced people.
Gaza’s Health Ministry stated that it has completely lost contact with medics inside the Kamal Adwan Hospital since the IOF stormed the facility.
The whereabouts of the hospital director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, are currently unknown. Dr. Safiya had been providing constant updates on Israel’s siege of the hospital for the last several months and pleading for international institutions to take action to stop Israel’s attacks. On December 2, 2024, he penned a column in the New York Times titled, “I’m One of the Last Doctors in This Hospital in Gaza. I’m Begging the World for Help.” In the essay, he wrote, “We feel as if the rest of the world is wrapped up in a different world from the one we are in. We are suffering and paying the price of the genocide that is happening to our people here in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Notably, in its report on Israel’s final siege on the hospital, the Times depicts the travesty at Kamal Adwan as collateral damage in Israel’s “offensive against Hamas militants” uncritically repeating Israel’s allegation that “the hospital was a stronghold for Hamas and that it was carrying out ‘targeted operations’ in the area.”
In a statement published on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) slammed Israel’s arson attack on the hospital, which used to serve over 400,000 Palestinian citizens. “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 statement reads.
“60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition, including those on ventilators, reportedly remain in the hospital. The patients in moderate to severe condition were forced to evacuate to the destroyed and non-functional Indonesian Hospital. WHO is deeply concerned for their safety,” the statement continues.
The WHO clarified that the raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital followed Israel’s escalating restrictions on the organization and its partners to access the hospital. The raid also came after repeated attacks on the hospital and its vicinity since early October. The organization considered the assault on the hospital as part of the systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza, labeling it as a “death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care.”
For its part, the Palestinian Presidency slammed the attack considering it as “part of Israel’s ongoing campaign of genocide and displacement against the Palestinian people”, and a “serious and blatant violation of international law and international agreements and conventions that protect medical facilities and personnel during armed conflicts.”
The Palestinian Presidency urged global health organizations, including WHO, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and other international humanitarian bodies “to fulfill their responsibilities toward stopping this crime against the Palestinian healthcare sector.”
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) condemned the attack calling it a “war crime” committed amid “international inaction and full complicity from the US administration.”
In an Al Jazeerainterview on Friday, Hamas official Osama Hamdan refuted Israeli claims that there were Palestinian fighters in the hospital and stated that Kamal Adwan Hospital has been subjected to a massacre for 75 days. Hamdan added that the attack on the hospital is part of an attempt by Israel “to end all manifestations of civilian steadfastness in northern Gaza.”
One day prior to setting the facility to fire, Israeli fighter jets launched an airstrike on a building opposite of Kamal Adwan Hospital. At least 50 people were killed in the attack, including three health workers. Earlier in the month, IOF placed booby trapped devices around the hospital, and eyewitnesses said they saw explosive robots and hidden bombs deployed around the facility.
Kamal Adwan was not the only major medical facility to be targeted by IOF in Gaza during the past two weeks. Israel also intensified its attacks on the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, and the Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia refugee camp north of Gaza city, which has prompted doctors and authorities in Gaza to request immediate intervention by the international community.
Yet, despite the numerous cries for help and warnings of dangerous escalation by Gaza’s health workers, Israel has been able to proceed with the destruction of healthcare and its genocide of the Palestinian people thanks to the full backing it enjoys by the United States government.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
