Israel releases Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital director; ministers slam defense, Shin Bet chiefs
Palestinian doctor Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al Shifa Hospital after his release from Israeli detention, at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, 1 July 2024
Jack Khoury, Bar Peleg and Jonathan Lis report in Haaretz on 1 July 2024:
Reports from Gaza indicate that on Monday, Israel released 50 Palestinian detainees, including the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, sparking outrage from Israeli government ministers.
Mohammad Abu-Salmiya, the head of the Gaza City hospital, was documented upon his release to the Gaza Strip. According to a security official, the decision to release him was based on recommendations from Shin Bet and IDF intelligence, following a re-evaluation of information about him. This decision was made after he had been in custody of the Israel Prison Service in recent months.
The Shin Bet issued a statement warning the national security ministry against releasing prisoners due to prison overcrowding, citing potential risks to national security. The IDF declined to provide any comment on the release.
The statement claimed that the Shin Bet had been warning about prison overcrowding for about a year, and that the limited prison space also leads to the cancellation of arrests against wanted individuals in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Shin Bet confirmed that the hospital director met the criteria for release from detention, but noted that the incident would be investigated further. “While the director of Al-Shifa Hospital meets all criteria regarding the perceived level of danger compared to other prisoners, the matter will undergo investigation,” the organization stated.
This contradicts the statement of the Israel Prison Service, which said, “The decision to release the director of Al-Shifa was made by the IDF and the Shin Bet – not the prison service.” The statement added that the hospital director was not released due to prison overcrowding.
Sources close to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he was not involved in the releases and was unaware of them. “The protocol for the detention of security prisoners and their release is under the authority of the Shin Bet and the Prison Service and is not subject to the approval of the defense minister,” his office stated.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that the decision to release Abu-Salmiya was made without the government’s knowledge, describing the move as “a serious problem and moral failure.” e office added that a team would be established to review and approve the release of prisoners upon completion of their investigations. It also said that Abu-Salmiya’s release would be investigated, and that the head of the Shin Bet security service would present his conclusions in the coming day.
Al-Shifa Hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya before his detention.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier Monday that an immediate inquiry had been ordered into the matter, and noted that “the decision to release the prisoners follows High Court hearings on a petition against the detention of prisoners in the Sde Teiman detention facility.”
The prime minister’s statement earlier Monday also said that the “identity of released prisoners is determined independently by security officials based on their professional considerations.”
According to a security official, the hospital director, who had a permanent detention order against him, was released after a re-evaluation of the information available about him. According to the official, some other released individuals were detained by the prison service and others at the Sde Teiman detention facility. He added that the recommendation to release the other detainees was made after it was found that their risk to national security had decreased.
Two security sources explained that, among other reasons, the purpose of the release is to reduce the number of detainees at the Sde Teiman facility and restore it to its original intended function: a screening and investigation facility.
Sde Teiman was established shortly after the beginning of the war to take in Hamas members until they could be transferred to prisons in Israel. Since then, numerous reports have surfaced about harsh detention conditions and abuse of detainees at the facility.
Israeli ministers sharply criticized defense officials for the release, specifically targeting Gallant and Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar. The decision also drew criticism from former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, now an opposition lawmaker.
Abu-Salmiya, the released hospital director, was recorded on Monday saying after his release that, “Israel arrests everyone, including medical teams. There are prisoners who died from torture, and there are physicians and medical staff members who are still being held and in need of treatment.” “We are happy about the release,” he said, “but we left behind thousands who are enduring indescribable suffering. The situation of the doctors and prisoners must be on the negotiation table in every deal.”
The Al-Shifa hospital director was arrested more than seven months ago. According to the IDF statement of Abu-Salmiya’s arrest, Hamas made use of many of the hospital’s resources, including electricity, to operate the tunnel system it built under the building, and to store weapons and combat equipment in and around the hospital.
Hamas, the IDF added, used the hospital as a shelter for its militants and even took Israeli hostages there following October 7. An Israeli pathological report confirmed that the murder of Corporal Noa Marciano took place on the hospital premises.
Abu-Salmiya said that “Israel arrested me as if they had caught a big fish; now it turns out that everything was a lie and an illusion, and they inflated the whole affair. Here I am, released without any charges; they brought me before a judge several times, and even there they presented no evidence. I was released without any conditions and without any understandings or deals.
“The conduct in the prisons and detention facilities proves that everything was a vindictive measure against the prisoners, including the medical staff, some of whom paid with their lives, like Dr. Iyad Arantisi and Dr. Adnan Albarush,” Abu-Salmiya said. According to him, he was not only held in Sde Teiman, but was transferred to several other prisons, including Ashkelon and Ofer.
Minister Benny Gantz posted on X that “whoever took this decision should be fired today.” “A government that releases those who cooperated with the murders committed in Al-Shifa in October, who helped hide our hostages, made an operational and moral error. It cannot lead this war of existence,” he added.
According to screenshots of the Israeli government ministers’ WhatsApp group obtained by Haaretz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who holds ministerial responsibility over the prison service, wrote that “It’s time to send the Shin Bet chief home. He does whatever he wants, and Gallant totally supports him. They both don’t give a damn about the cabinet and the government. [Bar] runs his own independent policy. He does whatever he wants.”
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli asked if it was possible “to get an explanation on why this man, in whose hospital our hostages were murdered and Hamas’ headquarters operated, was released?”
Far-right National Missions Minister Orit Strock addressed the cabinet secretary, saying that “It’s unthinkable to carry out such a move without a cabinet meeting! If our consent was requested [to approve] a hostage deal, all the more so for the release of terrorists without any compensation!”
“I demand that everything is halted, and a cabinet meeting be convened,” she added.
Economy and Industry Minister Nir Barkat called the release of the Al-Shifa Hospital director a “political lapse of light and a serious disruption of judgment,” and a “move that conveys great weakness.” He called for a full reflection to be given to the public on the decision-making process.
About three weeks ago, the state informed Israel’s Supreme Court that all Palestinian inmates held in the Sde Teiman detention center would be either transferred to other holding facilities in Israel or returned to the Gaza Strip. Conditions of the detention center, established immediately after the outbreak of the war in Gaza to hold Hamas terrorists, have been called “inhumane” by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the High Court ordered the state to provide details of the inmate’s conditions.
According to a report submitted by the state to the court, as of Sunday, 94 Palestinian detainees are still held in Sde Teiman out of approximately 140 who were there until recently. The report adds that 46 of the inmates were transferred last week to the military Ofer Prison, while a new group of 45 detainees arrested in Gaza arrived in the facility in recent days. Despite the state’s previous commitment to the court, the facility has not yet been closed.
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