US gathering information about Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh, diplomat says

Israel on Friday defended its raid on a northern Gaza hospital last week while the United Nations human rights chief called the justification unsubstantiated and the World Health Organisation (WHO) urged Israel to release the hospital's director from detention. 

Israel's UN ambassador in Geneva, Daniel Meron, posted on social media a letter he sent on Friday to the WHO and Volker Turk, the UN human rights official. It said the raid on Kamal Adwan hospital a week ago was "triggered by irrefutable evidence" that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants were using the hospital.

Israel's deputy UN ambassador Jonathan Miller said more than "240 terrorists were apprehended, including 15 who participated in the 7 October massacre" in southern Israel in 2023, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip. The hospital's director, Hussam Abu Safiyeh, was also detained in the raid. 

"We suspect him of being a Hamas operative as hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were hiding inside the Kamal Adwan hospital under his management. He is currently being investigated by Israeli security forces," Miller said.

The WHO is deeply concerned about Abu Safiya, said WHO representative Richard Peeperkorn, adding: "We have lost contact with him since and call for his immediate release."

The United States is gathering information about Abu Safiya, deputy US ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea told the Security Council.

- Reporting by Reuters