GAZA  –  Israel has confirmed it is holding Gaza hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya after earlier telling a local NGO that it was unaware of his case, sparking concern for his wellbeing. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said he was “currently being investigated by Israeli security forces” in person. The statement did not offer an explanation for the confusion but repeated that he was suspected of being a “terrorist” and for “holding a rank” in Hamas, the armed Palestinian group at war with Israel in Gaza.

Dr Abu Safiya was arrested as the Israeli military forced patients and medical staff to leave Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza last Friday, alleging the facility was a “Hamas terrorist stronghold”. Last Thursday the IDF told Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) that it had “no indication of the arrest or detention of the individual in question”. The PHRI filed a petition with the Israeli High Court of Justice on Thursday, demanding Dr Abu Safiya’s location be disclosed. It said the court had given the IDF a week to comply. Meanwhile Amnesty head Agnès Callamard said Israeli authorities must “urgently disclose his whereabouts”. She said Israel had detained “hundreds of Palestinian healthcare workers from Gaza without charge or trial” and said they had been “subjected to torture and other ill-treatment and been held in incommunicado detention”. Israel denies mistreating detainees.

Dr Abu Safiya’s family previously told BBC Arabic they believe he is being held at Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel, where Israeli forces have taken many detainees from Gaza for interrogation. Whistleblowers have previously told the BBC and other international media of extremely harsh conditions for detainees there. Israel has said all detainees there are kept “carefully and appropriately”. The IDF ordered everyone inside Kamal Adwan hospital to leave last Friday morning, giving the hospital about 15 minutes to move patients and staff into the courtyard, medical staff told the BBC.

Beit Lahia, where the hospital is located, has been under a tightening Israeli blockade imposed on parts of northern Gaza since October. The UN has said the area has been under “near-total siege” as the Israeli military heavily restricts access of aid deliveries to an area where an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people remain. Last Saturday, the IDF said it apprehended 240 combatants at Kamal Adwan and said Dr Abu Safiya was among medical staff taken for questioning. Video footage showed him walking towards an Israeli armoured vehicle before being taken for interrogation. An Israeli military spokesperson confirmed the arrest that same day, saying the doctor had been transferred for questioning. Dr Abu Safiya was previously arrested by Israeli forces during an earlier raid on the hospital in October, but was freed shortly afterwards. During that Israeli operation Dr Abu Safiya’s 15-year-old son was killed in a drone strike. Footage from later that day showed him leading funeral prayers for his son in the hospital courtyard. Israeli attacks on Gaza’s healthcare facilities have prompted increasing condemnation. (BBC)

Photo: Gaza hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya. (Reuters)

HOI AN –  A British woman and her South African fiancé have been found dead in a holiday villa in Vietnam, local police have said. Greta Marie Otteson, 33, was discovered by staff dead on a bed in a first-floor room in Hoi An, a coastal city in the central region of the south-east Asian nation, at around 11:18 local time (04:18 GMT) on 26 December, police said in a statement last Monday.

Her fiancé Els Arno Quinton, 36, was found dead on a bed in another room in the villa that had reportedly been locked from the inside. The UK Foreign Office confirmed it was in contact with local authorities and supporting the family of a British woman who had died in Vietnam. Ms Otteson was a social media manager, and Mr Quinton was a musician and livestreamer. A video announcing their engagement was posted on Instagram by videography company Red Eye Studios on 11 December.

Both had registered for long-term temporary residence at the Hoa Chuong villa, in the Cam Thanh commune, since last summer. Police said a preliminary inspection of the bodies had found no signs of external force and that the rooms showed no sign of burglary. Local media reports that several empty bottles of wine were found at the scene. An investigation into the cause of the pair’s deaths is ongoing. A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said in a statement: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Vietnam and are in contact with the local authorities.” (BBC)

Photo: Greta Otteson and Arno Quinton. (Greta Otteson/Facebook)

CALIFORNIA   –  Apple has agreed to pay USD 95 million to settle a court case alleging some of its devices were listening to people without their permission. The tech giant was accused of eavesdropping on its customers through its virtual assistant Siri. The claimants also allege voice recordings were shared with advertisers. Apple, which has not admitted any wrongdoing, has been approached for comment. In the preliminary settlement, the tech firm denies any wrongdoing, as well as claims that it “recorded, disclosed to third parties, or failed to delete, conversations recorded as the result of a Siri activation” without consent.

Apple’s lawyers also say they will confirm they have “permanently deleted individual Siri audio recordings collected by Apple prior to October 2019”. But the claimants say the tech firm recorded people who activated the virtual assistant unintentionally – without using the phrase “Hey, Siri” to wake it. They say advertisers who received the recordings could then look for keywords in them to better target ads. The lead plaintiff Fumiko Lopez claims she and her daughter were both recorded without their consent. They allege they were served targeted ads after talking about products including Air Jordans.

Apple has proposed a decision date of 14 February in the court in Northern California. Class action lawsuits work by a small number of people going to court on behalf of a larger group. If they are successful, the money won is paid out across all claimants. According to the court documents, each claimant – who has to be based in the US -could be paid up to USD 20 per Siri-enabled device they owned between 2014 and 2019. In this case, the lawyers could take 30% of the fee plus expenses – which comes to just under USD 30 million. By settling, Apple not only denies wrongdoing, but it also avoids the risk of facing a court case which could potentially mean a much larger pay out. The California company made USD 94.9 billion in revenue in the three months up to 28 September 2024.

Apple has been involved in a number of class action lawsuits in recent years. In January 2024, it started paying out in a  USD 500 million lawsuit which claimed it deliberately slowed down iPhones in the US. In March, it agreed to pay USD 490 million in a class action led by Norfolk County Council in the UK. And in November, consumer group Which? started a class action against Apple, accusing it of ripping off customers through its iCloud service. The same law firm is suing Google in a similar class action, accusing it of listening to customers using Google devices. That lawsuit is currently going through the same court in Northern California. (BBC/Getty Images)