Palestinian UN ambassador calls for release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh

In the first United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the Middle East for 2025, Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour asked the international body to show "courage" in demanding the release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh, the medical director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza was detained by Israeli forces last week. 

A global social media campaign is underway demanding that he be freed and reunited with his family.

The UNSC meeting in New York was specifically held to discuss Israel's attacks on the health system in Gaza. 

"Dr Abu Safiyeh was himself injured. And now he has been abducted, detained, his fate unknown. He refused to leave the victims behind. Can't we display some degree of that same courage?" Mansour said.

"This is not a war; this is an assault against Palestinian existence. Its target is, therefore, life itself in Gaza, and all those who are trying to sustain it, all those trying to ensure survival in the midst of this genocide," he said.

"And, according to this criminal intent, it is therefore logical that medical personnel, doctors, nurses, paramedics, are among its primary victims. This is immoral, unbearable and must be stopped."