(June 30, 2025)

Before his detention, Abu Safiya, 51, who became the head of Kamal Adwan in 2024, was the lead physician in Gaza for MedGlobal, a Chicago-based nonprofit that has partnered with local health care workers since 2018 and arranges volunteer medical missions to the enclave.

The organization’s co-founder, Dr. John Kahler, told NBC News in a phone interview on Thursday that he was “very afraid” that Abu Safiya won’t “make it out alive” from detention. He added that the physician was “a friend of mine, a hero, mentor,” who, among other things, had helped to establish nutrition stabilization centers in the Gaza Strip.