Israel released the head of the Gaza Strip's largest hospital on Monday after detaining him for more than seven months, Palestinian health officials said, a move that sparked immediate outrage in Israel though no charges against him have been made public.
Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City… taken into custody In late November he was involved in an effort to evacuate patients from the hospital, which was under siege by the Israeli army at the time. The army said he was taken for questioning about Hamas' actions at the hospital.
Reaction to Dr. Abu Salmiya's release underscored the differing views about the war inside and outside Israel. Human rights groups said his prolonged detention without charge was a sign of Israel's mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have been 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.
Speaking at a press conference held at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after his release, a frail-looking Dr Abu Salmiya said he had been released and returned to Gaza along with about 50 other Palestinian detainees, including other doctors and Health Ministry staff.
“We were tortured very severely,” he said, adding that his finger was broken and he was repeatedly hit on the head. The Israel Prison Service, which operates Nafah prison where he was last held, said in a statement that it was not aware of Dr. Abu Salmiya’s claims, and that “all prisoners are detained in accordance with the law.”
The reaction to the release of Dr. Abu Salmiya also highlighted Differences between the Israeli 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 additional space in detention centers so that more terrorists in Israel and the Gaza Strip could be arrested. Shin Bet said that as a result it and the army had to release a certain number of detainees who posed a “low threat” in order to “free up imprisonment spaces” for new detainees.
Mr. Netanyahu’s office shrugged off responsibility in a statement, calling the doctor’s release “a serious mistake and moral failure” that was carried out “without the knowledge of state decision-makers.” It said the prime minister had ordered an investigation “so that such a mistake cannot be repeated.”
The Israeli Prison Service said in a statement that the decision was made by the Israeli army and Shin Bet, but the army said the detainee was not in their custody.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir described the doctor's release as “security negligence” and blamed Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. Mr. Galant's office responded with a statement saying the detainees' release “is not subject to the Defense Minister's approval.”
Benny Gantz, Leader of the Opposition in Parliament who left Mr Netanyahu's war cabinet last monthHe accused the government of moral failure and said Mr Netanyahu's failure to take any responsibility for the move was further evidence of his inability to lead.
israeli politicianPoliticians, both inside and outside the ruling coalition, and the security services, have become increasingly vocal in publicly criticizing the government's conduct during the war and its lack of postwar planning.
Dr Abu Salmiya's release comes at a time when there are indications that militants remain active in Gaza. The Israeli military said at least 20 rockets were fired from southern Gaza towards Israel on Monday morning, the biggest attack from the territory in recent months. The army said several rockets were intercepted, while others fell in Israeli border communities, although no injuries were reported. The army said it responded with artillery fire, destroying the source of the incoming rockets.
Mr. Netanyahu indicated that the most intense fighting may be subsiding, though it left open the possibility that the war would continue in lesser amounts for a long time. “We are approaching the end of the phase of dismantling the terrorist army of Hamas; we will continue to strike at its remnants,” he said in a statement.
More than 9,600 Palestinians detained under Israel's military and national security laws are held in Israeli jails, the highest number in more than a decade. HaMokedIsraeli human rights groups have said many detainees are being held without charge and are being detained. Abuse while in custody,
According to Israeli authorities, of the approximately 4,000 people detained in Gaza between October 7 and the end of May, about 1,500 have been released back into the territory.
The Gaza Health Ministry and the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Dr. Abu Salmiya was detained in November when he was traveling with a UN ambulance convoy carrying patients from Al-Shifa Hospital to southern Gaza and was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint.
At the time, the Israeli military said he was taken in for questioning “after receiving evidence that al-Shifa Hospital under his direct management served as a Hamas command-and-control center” — a charge Hamas and hospital officials have denied. An Israeli military spokesman told reporters at the time that Dr. Abu Salmiya had not been charged, and that the military was not suggesting he was linked to Hamas.
Dr. Abu Salmiya told reporters on Monday that although he had been brought to court proceedings three or four times, no charges were ever filed against him.
The Israeli attack on Al-Shifa came as a major setback. symbol of warAnd many Gazans view Israel's targeting of medical institutions as a sign of disregard for Palestinian life. Dr. Abu Salmiya's detention reinforced this view.
To the Israelis the hospital was an example of Hamas exploiting civilian infrastructure and civilians as a shield for its military operations.
The Israeli military later released some evidence supporting its claim that Hamas operated from within the Shifa compound, including showing journalists a fortified tunnel underneath the compound. Investigation The New York Times suggested that Hamas had used the site as cover and stored weapons there. However, the Israeli military struggled to prove that Hamas maintained a command-and-control center underneath the hospital complex.
Israeli troops withdrew from the area after their initial assault on al-Shifa in November. But in late March, after the army said remnants of Hamas's military wing had regrouped there, Israeli forces returned to the hospital, planning an assault. The war lasted for two weeks In which he said that he killed about 200 Palestinians and arrested hundreds of others.
The fighting caused extensive damage to several of the hospital's main buildingsBodies were strewn in and around the compound, according to a doctor there and a spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defence.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement on Monday that Dr. Abu Salmiya had been released along with Dr. Issam Abu Ajwa, a surgeon at Al-Shifa. The statement called for the release of all other detained medical workers in Gaza who were “arrested and mistreated simply because they were treating the sick and injured.”
The Health Ministry said on Sunday that at least 310 medical workers had been detained by Israeli forces in Gaza since the war began. The ministry did not say how many had been released.
The number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails has surged since the Hamas-led offensive on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza. Israeli troops have arrested hundreds of people in Gaza in a search for fighters, while security forces in the occupied West Bank have launched a campaign aimed at rooting out militants, the army said.
Rights groups say arrests are often arbitrary and the conditions Palestinians are held in can be inhumane. Israel says jailed Palestinians – including senior militants convicted of brutal attacks – are treated in accordance with international standards.
Contributed reporting Myra Noveck, Abu Bakr Bashir, Gabby Sobelman, Patrick Kingsley, Bilal Shabair And Aaron Boxerman,
