Al-Shifah Hospital Chief Finally Freed by Israel After 7 Months in Prison

INTERNATIONAL – After seven months in prison, the director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City was finally released on Monday, July 1 by Israel. Dozens of Palestinian prisoners were also released, including around fifty detainees, according to several media outlets including the Guardian.

This Monday morning, an AFP correspondent saw men reuniting with their relatives and hugging them at the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. A video of Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa Hospital, greeting his relatives and giving a press conference was also shared by several Palestinian journalists, as you can see below.

Another doctor, Dr. Bassam Miqdad, head of his orthopedic department at the European hospital in Khan Younis, was also released on Monday. “after his arrest a few months ago”the establishment said, according to information reported by TV5 World.

Arrested in November, in his hospital

Israeli forces arrested Mohammed Abu Salmiya in November. Israel accuses Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, of using hospitals for military purposes, which it denies. “Under his leadership, the hospital was the scene of numerous Hamas terrorist activities.”the army said at the time, having searched the establishment, the largest in the Palestinian territory, room by room.

“The release of the director of the Shifa medical center in Gaza, along with dozens of other terrorists, is a renunciation of security”Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said in a message published on X on Monday. Asked by AFP about the release of the prisoners, the Israeli army indicated “check this information”.

Doctor denounces “torture” suffered in prison

Barely released, Mohammed Abou Salmiya denounced the treatment he witnessed in prison. “All Palestinian detainees are suffering. I left them in a very precarious state. My message is that their problem must be part of the negotiations until all Palestinian detainees are released,” he said at a press conference.

He reported in particular that “Prisoners are subjected to all kinds of torture.” “Several detainees have died in interrogation centers and have been deprived of food and medicine,” he added, according to a translation of France 24. “For two months, the prisoners ate only one loaf of bread a day.”he continued, adding that they were “subjected to physical and psychological humiliation”.

The prisoners released on Monday were transferred to medical centers in the Gaza Strip, a medical source in the Palestinian territory told AFP.

Last May, Palestinian prisoners’ rights groups claimed that two Palestinians, including a doctor from al-Shifa, had died in an Israeli prison, succumbing to « tortures » and lack of care.

The Israeli army told AFP “not being informed” such facts. It opened an investigation on December 19 after the deaths in custody of several Palestinians arrested in Gaza since October 7.

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