Israel on Monday released the director of the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital after more than seven months in detention, Palestinian health officials said, although no charges have been publicly filed against him, a move that immediately sparked a strong protest in Israel.
Mohammad Abu Salmiya, Director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City In custody He took part in the evacuation of patients from the hospital in late November while it was under siege by Israeli forces. The military said he was taken away to question Hamas about its activities at the hospital.
Reactions to Dr. Abu Salmiya’s release highlighted the differing views of the war inside and outside Israel. Human rights groups said his prolonged detention without charge was a sign of Israel’s abuse of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are held for long periods without charge or trial, while some Israeli officials on Monday condemned the decision to release him as an example of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mismanagement of the war.
After his release, a frail Dr. Abu Salmiya told a news conference at Khan Younis Nasser Hospital that he had been released and returned to Gaza along with nearly 50 other Palestinian detainees, including other doctors and health ministry staff.
“We were tortured greatly,” he said, adding that his fingers were broken and his head was repeatedly beaten. The Israel Prison Service, which runs Nafa prison, where he was last held, said in a statement that it was unaware of Dr. Abu Salmiya’s claims and that “all prisoners are detained in accordance with the law.”
The reaction to Dr. Abu Salmiya’s release also highlighted Divisions between Israel’s security forces and the country’s political classIsrael’s domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet said in a statement that the government had failed to meet its demand for more space in detention centers in order to arrest more “terrorists in Israel and the Gaza Strip.” As a result, Shin Bet said it and the military must release a certain number of “less dangerous” detainees to free up “custodial spaces” to hold new detainees.
Netanyahu’s office deflected blame in a statement, calling the doctor’s release “a grave mistake and moral failure” that was carried out “without the knowledge of state decision-makers.” The statement said the prime minister had ordered an investigation into the matter “to prevent such a mistake from happening again.”
The Israel Prison Service said in a statement that the decision was made by the Israeli military and the Shin Bet security service, but the military said the detainee was not being held.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called the doctor’s release a “security oversight” and blamed Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Shin Bet chief Ronan Barr. Galant’s office responded in a statement saying the release of the detainees “did not require the approval of the defense minister.”
Benny Gantz, leader of the parliamentary opposition who resigned from Netanyahu’s war cabinet last monthAccusing the government of moral corruption and saying Netanyahu does not take responsibility for the move is further proof that he has no leadership ability.
Israeli politiciansThe opposition and security services, both within and outside the ruling coalition, have become increasingly vocal in publicly criticizing the government’s conduct of the war and its lack of post-war planning.
Dr. Abu Salmiya’s release comes amid signs that militants are still active in Gaza. The Israeli military said at least 20 rockets were fired from southern Gaza into Israel on Monday morning in the largest rocket attack from the region in months. The military said many of the rockets were intercepted and others landed in Israeli border communities, though no casualties were reported. The military said it carried out artillery strikes to hit the source of the incoming rockets.
Netanyahu said the most intense fighting may be ending, though that also means the war may continue for a long time, just on a smaller scale. “We are approaching the final stage of the phase of eliminating the Hamas terrorist army; we will continue to fight its remnants,” he said in a statement.
More than 9,600 Palestinians detained under Israel’s military and national security laws are reportedly being held in Israeli jails, the highest number in more than a decade. HammokedIsraeli human rights group. It said many of the detainees were being held without charge and Ill-treatment in detention.
According to Israeli authorities, about 1,500 of the approximately 4,000 people detained in Gaza between October 7 and the end of May have been released and returned to Gaza.
Gaza’s Health Ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Dr. Abu Salmiya was detained in November while evacuating patients from Shifa Hospital to southern Gaza with a U.N. ambulance convoy and was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint.
At the time, the Israeli military said he was taken in for questioning “because of evidence that the Shifa hospital, which he directly managed, was a command and control center for Hamas” – a charge Hamas and hospital officials denied. An Israeli military spokesman told reporters at the time that Dr. Abu Salmiya had not been charged and the military had not suggested he had links to Hamas.
Dr. Abu Salmiya told reporters on Monday that despite having gone through three or four court cases, he had never been charged with anything.
Israel’s attack on Shifa becomes Symbol of warMany Gazans view Israel’s targeting of medical facilities as a sign of disregard for Palestinian life. The detention of Dr. Abu Salmiya has reinforced that view.
For Israelis, the hospital is an example of Hamas using civilian infrastructure and civilians as a shield for its military operations.
The Israeli military later released some evidence to prove Hamas’ presence in the Shifa complex, including showing journalists a reinforced tunnel built beneath its premises. investigation The New York Times report suggested that Hamas had used the site as a cover and stored weapons there. However, the Israeli military has struggled to prove claims that Hamas had a command and control center under the hospital building.
Israeli troops withdrew from Shifa Hospital in November after their first attack. But in late March, they returned to the hospital after the military said remnants of Hamas’ military wing had regrouped at the hospital, sparking protests. Two weeks of fighting They claim to have killed around 200 Palestinians and arrested hundreds more.
The fighting severely damaged many of the hospital’s main buildings.According to a doctor and a spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defence Organization, bodies were scattered inside and outside the complex.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in a statement on Monday that Dr. Abu Salmiya and Dr. Issam Abu Ajwa, a surgeon at Shifa Hospital, had been released. The statement called for the release of all detained Gaza medical staff who had been “arrested and tortured simply for treating the wounded and sick.”
At least 310 medical workers in Gaza have been detained by Israeli forces since the start of the war, the Health Ministry said on Sunday. It did not specify how many had been released.
The number of Palestinians in Israeli jails has grown since the Hamas-led assault and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza on Oct. 7. Israeli troops have arrested hundreds of people in Gaza in a hunt for militants, the military said, while security forces in the occupied West Bank have carried out a crackdown they say is aimed at rooting out militants.
Human rights groups say arrests are often arbitrary and Palestinians can be held in inhumane conditions. Israel says jailed Palestinians – including senior militants convicted of brutal attacks – are treated in line with international standards.
Reported by Myra Novick, Abu Bakr al-Bashir, Gabrielle Sobelman, Patrick Kingsley, Bilal Shibai and Alan Boxman.
