Main events on February 19th
- Hamas is set to hand over the bodies of four Israeli captives – including that of Shiri Bibas and her children, who were aged nine months and four years – to Israeli authorities today.
- Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the detained director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza, appeared in a video broadcast by Israeli media, with both his hands and feet shackled and looking visibly exhausted and weakened.
- The Gaza Media Office said Israel is continuing to hold up the entry of temporary housing and heavy machinery, with only six bulldozers allowed in so far, although the truce deal calls for 500 such machines.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) says it will resume a mass vaccination campaign against polio in the Gaza Strip.
- Israel’s large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin entered its second month, as soldiers continued to kill and arrest Palestinians, as well as destroy and burn homes and vital infrastructure across the territory.
- Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called for an end to Israel’s occupation of several hilltops in southern Lebanon, as the Israeli military continued strikes in the area, including an attack that killed the son of the mayor of the village of Aita al-Shaab.
A Lebanese family sits next to a destroyed home in the southern Lebanese border village of Wazzani after Israeli forces partially withdrew on Wednesday
Abu Safia’s family slams Israeli video as ‘psychological terrorism’
The detained doctor’s family has denounced the Israeli video of Abu Safia, saying his statements had been manipulated and distorted.
“We reject any media outlet broadcasting the video without addressing the psychological terrorism he was subjected to and exposing the manipulation of his statements,” the family said.
“The scene of our father being restrained and unable to move should prompt immediate and continuous actions to ensure his immediate release.”
Lawyers for Abu Safia, who is being held at Israel’s Ofer Prison, have previously said he was subjected to “torture and inhuman and degrading treatment”, including “beatings with batons and electric shock sticks, as well as repeated blows to the chest”.
UN rights expert calls for Abu Safia’s release
Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, issues the call on X after Israeli media broadcast a video showing him visibly weakened and in shackles in an Israeli prison.
Abu Safia “must be released without any further delay, together with the medical personnel and other Palestinians arbitrarily detained,” she said.
Abu Safia was detained in December after Israeli forces ransacked the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. As director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Abu Safia refused multiple Israeli orders to abandon his staff and patients after Israel’s military imposed a devastating blockade on the area on October 5.
A protester holds a sign calling for Dr Hussam Abu Safia’s release outside the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in Toronto, Canada, on January 5
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