PARIS: About 50 people, including doctors, trade unionists and pro-Palestinian activists, gathered outside France’s foreign ministry in Paris on Thursday to call for the release of a Gaza hospital director who has been held since December 2024.
“Free Dr. Abu Safiya,” chanted the demonstrators at the protest organized by hospital unions, among them Patrick Pelloux, the high-profile head France’s emergency doctor association.
It is the latest call for the release of Hussam Abu Safiya, a pediatrician and director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, who has reportedly suffered torture and life-threatening injuries in detention.
United Nations experts, the World Health Organization and Amnesty International have urged Israel to set him free.
Israel has said his detention is “lawful” and rejected reports that he suffered a life-threatening condition.
