Gaza Doctor Who Wrote NYT Op-Eds Linked to Hamas Terror Group

A physician from Gaza who penned multiple op-eds for the New York Times accusing Israel of atrocities has been exposed as a colonel in the Hamas terrorist organization, according to findings released by Israeli watchdog group NGO Monitor.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, described in Western media as a pediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was featured prominently in international coverage as a civilian medical voice condemning Israel during the Gaza conflict. But a photo uncovered by NGO Monitor’s senior researcher Vincent Chebat shows Abu Safiya in full Hamas military uniform during a 2016 ceremony celebrating the completion of Kamal Adwan Hospital an event posted by Gaza Medical Services, an arm of the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

Despite this affiliation, Abu Safiya’s political and military connections were omitted in two widely circulated opinion pieces published by the New York Times in late 2023 and again in December 2024. In those articles, he accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza and described its military operations as horrific, while failing to acknowledge Hamas’s central role in launching the war and embedding itself within Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.

The October 7, 2023 war was sparked when Hamas militants stormed across the border into southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 civilians, abducting around 250 more, and injuring thousands. It is this unprecedented act of terror that triggered Israel’s full-scale military response in Gaza.

NGO Monitor further reported that Abu Safiya had shared antisemitic content and posts praising the October 7 massacre on social media. Yet, when he was arrested in 2024, global outlets such as Amnesty International, the BBC, and Al Jazeera framed his detention as part of a campaign against Palestinian healthcare workers, ignoring Arabic-language sources that openly identified him as a Hamas officer within the group's Military Medical Services.

“This is not a case of mistaken identity or disputed affiliation,” Chebat told the New York Post. “Those who platformed Abu Safiya must do some serious soul-searching and figure out how they ended up promoting the propaganda of a literal Hamas terrorist.”

The case raises disturbing questions about the lack of journalistic scrutiny applied to figures operating from within Hamas-controlled institutions, especially when those individuals are given international platforms to accuse Israel of crimes while concealing their roles within a terror organization.

For Israel, this revelation validates longstanding concerns that Hamas embeds its operatives in hospitals, schools, and aid networks using the civilian sphere as both cover and propaganda.

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