These Gaza Hospital Leaders Are Also High-Ranking Hamas Members

Several leaders of Gaza hospitals are high-ranking members of Hamas, while many others have terrorist ties, a Daily Wire review of Arab media reports and social media posts found.

The Daily Wire previously exposed that Kamal Adwan Hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, whose recent detainment caused international uproar for his release, was characterized in Arab media as a Hamas colonel. His social media posts show his support for Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israeli civilians.

But Abu Safiya is not the only Gaza hospital leader with ties to Hamas. He is joined by current and former leaders of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, and Gaza European Hospital near Khan Yunis.

Dr. Saleh al-Hams, Nursing Director of Gaza European Hospital

Dr. Saleh al-Hams, the nursing director of the Gaza European Hospital, has made several public posts on Facebook that indicate his strong ties to Hamas. In 2017, al-Hams uploaded a photo of himself wearing a military camouflage jacket and a hat adorned with the logo of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades. He donned the same outfit in a photo at a 2018 event with others wearing Hamas logos.

In a 2020 post, al-Hams shared images of Hamas members and a child holding a rifle, with a caption reading: “Our resistance is more than paying the price for the victory of the undermined and whoever stands with us in truth, we do not support him in unjustness and whoever doesn’t like it should prepare the preparation list for the next confrontation to be the alternative.”

Al-Hams celebrated Hamas’s October 7, 2024 attack on Israel the following day, calling it a “gift.”

“I did not imagine that I would enter the threshold of fifty years, that I would live to fill my eyes with moments of pride and dignity as I live them today, and to receive a gift as I received them yesterday and today,” he wrote.

In another post, Hams shared a video of victims of the California wildfires receiving medical treatment, where he states Gaza hospitals were bombarded by Americans’ missiles, adding “you tasted from the same cup, and the response was divine.” In a second post about the victims of the wildfires, he wrote, “I hope you’re having a reflective moment to review your attitudes.”

Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, Head of Al Shifa Hospital

Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the head of Al Shifa Hospital —  who was awarded the Arab Doctor of the Year Award in 2024 — has participated in Hamas events, including an event celebrating the terror group’s 32nd anniversary. According to a 2019 article from Pal Times, Salmiya spoke at the event alongside Hamas officials, where he thanked Hamas and spoke about martyrs.

“During the speech of the martyrs’ families, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya thanked the Hamas movement and the family of the Sheikh Ahmed Yassin Mosque for this wonderful gesture, through which Hamas and the family of the mosque confirmed that they are loyal to the blood of the martyrs, the sons of the neighborhood from all factions,” the article read.

Salmiya, a pediatrician, was arrested in November 2023 and remained in Israeli detention for seven months on suspicion of allowing his hospital to serve as a Hamas command and control center that also held hostages. Tunnel networks were found under Shifa Hospital, and hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen were killed in fights with the IDF at the complex. The body of 19-year-old Israeli hostage Noa Marciano was found in a building next to the hospital. In May, her parents claimed a doctor at the hospital killed Marciano, Jewish News Syndicate reported.

Salmiya — who claims he was tortured in prison — sparked significant controversy in Israel, which followed a directive from the National Security Council directing Israeli security agency Shin Beit to create a list of prisoners to be freed due to lack of space in jails. The Shin Bet reportedly reprimanded the senior official who approved Salmiya’s release.

In 2014, Salmiya uploaded a photo to Facebook of himself with a Qassam Brigades logo at the bottom. In 2013, he posted a photo of a man in a Hamas headband, with the caption: “My enemy is coming to you, coming from every house, alley and street. Our hope is for tomorrow, God willing.” In 2014, he shared a graphic of the Al Qassam Brigades logo on an airplane. The next day, he shared an image with fighters of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad with the caption, “Brothers in blood, brothers in arms, this is the true unity.”

Salmiya has also used his Facebook page to praise a November 2022 terror attack at a Jerusalem bus stop where a 15-year-old boy was killed and 14 others were injured. Salmiya has also publicly mourned terrorists including Udai Tamimi, who killed an Israeli soldier when opening fire at the entrance of Ma’ale Adumim.

According to investigator David Collier, Salmiya’s brother, Khalid Abu Salmia, was a leader of  the al-Qassam Brigades before he was killed in a targeted strike in 2004.

Atef al-Kahlout, Former Head of Indonesian Hospital

Atef al-Kahlout who served as head of the Indonesian Hospital until 2024, is also an alleged Hamas colonel. Al-Kahlout has been quoted in Western media including the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and the New York Times.

A 2011 article from the Palestinian media outlet Al Ray features a photo of al-Kahlout in military uniform, reporting that he affirmed medical services are “fully prepared to confront the enemy’s crimes against our people.” When he was appointed as Hamas’s deputy director general of military medical services in 2010, he was referred to as a “colonel” multiple times in an article, a title that appeared again in a 2012 article.

In 2015, he posted a photo of himself with deceased Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas official Fathi Hamad on Facebook, and another with just Hamad. Haniyeh was the leader of Hamas until his assassination in Iran in July 2024. Hamad came under international scrutiny in 2019 after calling on the Palestinian diaspora to “attack every Jew on the globe by way of slaughter and killing,” though he later attempted to walk back his comments.

Al-Kahlout’s Facebook also includes a picture of him wearing the Hamas scarf and several pictures of the Hamas logo.

According to his Facebook page, he is currently working at other hospitals including Patient Friends Association Hospital, Public Aid Hospitals, and Al-Sahaba Medical Complex.

Dr. Marwan Sultan, Director of Indonesian Hospital

Al-Kahlout’s replacement, while not appearing to be a member of Hamas, has shared posts on social media that use inflammatory rhetoric against Jews and their allies.

In a 2014 post, Sultan called on Muslims to “rise up to help our brothers in Gaza” and “take revenge on the Jews and those who help them.” A few months later, he posted a request for Allah to save Al-Aqsa Mosque, located on the Temple Mount — Judaism’s most holy site —  to be saved “from the filth of the Jews.” In 2023, he mourned the death of former Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesperson, Khader Adnan, who died after an 87-day hunger strike in an Israeli prison.

Sultan downplayed Hamas’s presence in Gaza’s hospitals in a 2023 interview, despite being a subordinate of al-Kahlout at the time. In December, the IDF killed five gunmen and detained others in an operation at the Indonesian Hospital, the Times of Israel reported.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital

Aby Safiya, who has been published twice by The New York Times and profiled by CNN, is believed to be a terrorist operative and has been referred to as a colonel in five Arabic news articles, from four different articles spanning from 2017 to 2021. These articles were published in Quds Net News Agency, Alray, Pal Times, and Al Watan twice. A 2018 Facebook post by the Hamas-run Medical Services in Gaza refers to Abu Safiya as “Director of the Children’s Hospital, Colonel Hussam Abu Safiya.”

“It’s clear these news articles are using the word ‘aqeed’ to describe Hussam Abu Safiya which means military colonel,” Yigal Carmon, the president of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) previously told The Daily Wire. “This word would not be used to describe someone running a hospital as a civilian.”

Safiya’s social media shows his support of the October 7 attack and hostility towards Jews, including a graphic of Palestinians breaching the Israeli border with the caption, “We are coming back to you, we are coming back, oh our country we are coming back.”

The next day, Abu Safiya wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post: “And they thought their fortresses would protect them from Allah, but Allah came upon them from where they did not expect, and cast terror into their hearts.”

Abu Safiya was arrested last month along with 240 others during a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital. In the wake of his arrest, organizations including the World Health Organization, Amnesty International, and the Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR), have called for his release.

Al-Hams, Abu Salmiya, al-Kahlout, and Sultan did not respond to requests for comment.