{"id":85503,"date":"2024-07-01T23:29:20","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T23:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/01\/israel-frees-gaza-hospital-chief-held-without-charges-for-7-months\/"},"modified":"2024-07-01T23:29:20","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T23:29:20","slug":"israel-frees-gaza-hospital-chief-held-without-charges-for-7-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/01\/israel-frees-gaza-hospital-chief-held-without-charges-for-7-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Frees Gaza Hospital Chief Held Without Charges for 7 Months"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/07\/01\/multimedia\/01mideast-1-cpzh\/01mideast-1-cpzh-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Israel Frees Gaza Hospital Chief Held Without Charges for 7 Months\" title=\"Israel Frees Gaza Hospital Chief Held Without Charges for 7 Months\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israel released the chief of the Gaza Strip\u2019s largest hospital on Monday after more than seven months of detention, Palestinian health officials said, a move that drew an immediate outcry in Israel even though no charges against him have been made public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2023\/11\/23\/world\/israel-hamas-gaza-hostage-war\/israeli-forces-detained-the-head-of-al-shifa-hospital-as-he-was-evacuating-to-the-south?smid=url-share\" title=\"\">taken into custody<\/a> in late November as he took part in an effort to evacuate patients from the hospital, which at the time was under siege by the Israeli military. The military said he was taken for questioning about Hamas operations at the hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Reaction to Dr. Abu Salmiya\u2019s release underlined divergent views of the war both inside and outside Israel. Human rights groups said his prolonged detention without charge was a sign of Israeli mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners, many of them held for long periods with no charges or trials, while some Israeli officials on Monday denounced the decision to release him as an example of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s mismanagement of the war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Speaking at a news conference at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after his release, Dr. Abu Salmiya, visibly frail, said that he had been released and returned to Gaza along with nearly 50 other Palestinian detainees, including other doctors and health ministry staff members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe were subjected to extreme torture,\u201d he said, adding that his finger had been broken and that he had been beaten over the head repeatedly. The Israeli Prison Service, which operates the Nafha Prison where he was last held, said in a statement that it was not aware of Dr. Abu Salmiya\u2019s claims, and that \u201call prisoners are detained according to the law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The reaction to Dr. Abu Salmiya\u2019s release also highlighted <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/20\/world\/middleeast\/netanyahu-israel-idf-war.html\" title=\"\">rifts between the Israeli security forces and the country\u2019s political class<\/a>. The Shin Bet, Israel\u2019s domestic intelligence agency, said in a statement that the government had failed to meet its demand for additional space in detention centers so more \u201cterrorists in Israel and the Gaza Strip\u201d could be arrested. As a result, the Shin Bet said, it and the military had been required to release a certain number of detainees who posed \u201ca lesser danger,\u201d to free up \u201cplaces of incarceration\u201d for new detainees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s office deflected responsibility in a statement, calling the doctor\u2019s release \u201ca grave mistake and a moral failure,\u201d carried out \u201cwithout the knowledge of state decision makers.\u201d It said the prime minister had ordered an investigation into the matter \u201cso that such a mistake won\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli Prison Service said in a statement that the decision had been made by the Israeli military and the Shin Bet, but the military said the detainee had not been in its custody.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right national security minister, called the doctor\u2019s release \u201csecurity negligence,\u201d and blamed the defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and the chief of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar. Mr. Gallant\u2019s office replied with a statement saying the release of detainees is \u201cnot subject to approval of the Minister of Defense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Benny Gantz, an opposition leader in Parliament <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/10\/world\/middleeast\/gantz-quits-israel-netanyahu.html\" title=\"\">who quit Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s war cabinet last month<\/a>, accused the government of a moral failing and said Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s taking no responsibility for the move was additional evidence of his inability to lead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/full-text-gallant-demands-pm-rule-out-israel-military-civil-control-of-post-hamas-gaza\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Israeli politicians<\/a>, both inside and outside the governing coalition, and the security services have become increasingly blunt in publicly criticizing the government\u2019s conduct of the war and its lack of postwar planning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Abu Salmiya\u2019s release came amid signs of militants\u2019 continued ability to operate in Gaza. At least 20 rockets were fired from southern Gaza toward Israel on Monday morning, the Israeli military said, one of the largest barrages from the territory in months. The military said that many of the rockets had been intercepted, while others fell in Israeli border communities, though no injuries were reported. The military said it fired artillery in response, striking the sources of the incoming rockets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Netanyahu signaled that the most intensive fighting may be winding down, though that leaves open the possibility that the war will continue, at lower volume, for a long time. \u201cWe are advancing to the end of the stage of eliminating Hamas\u2019s terrorist army; we will continue striking its remnants,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">More than 9,600 Palestinians detained under Israel\u2019s military and national security laws are being held in Israeli prisons, the highest figure in more than a decade, according to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/hamoked.org\/prisoners-charts.php\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">HaMoked<\/a>, an Israeli human rights group. It says many detainees are being held without charges and have been <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/28\/world\/middleeast\/palestinians-detained-in-israel.html\" title=\"\">abused while in custody<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Of about 4,000 people detained from Gaza from Oct. 7 through late May, about 1,500 have been released back to the enclave, according to Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Abu Salmiya was detained in November while traveling with a United Nations ambulance convoy that was evacuating patients from Al-Shifa Hospital to southern Gaza, and was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint, the Gaza health ministry and the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the time, the Israeli military said that he had been taken for questioning \u201cfollowing evidence showing that Al-Shifa Hospital, under his direct management, served as a Hamas command-and-control center\u201d \u2014 an accusation that Hamas and hospital officials have denied. A spokesman for the Israeli military told reporters at the time that Dr. Abu Salmiya had not been charged, and that the military was not suggesting he was affiliated with Hamas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Abu Salmiya told reporters on Monday that although he was brought into three or four court proceedings, no charges were ever leveled against him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli raid of Al-Shifa became a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/11\/15\/world\/middleeast\/al-shifa-hospital-israel.html?searchResultPosition=4\" title=\"\">symbol of the war<\/a>, and many Gazans see Israel\u2019s targeting of medical institutions as a sign of disregard for Palestinian life. Dr. Abu Salmiya\u2019s detention reinforced that view.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To Israelis, the hospital was an example of Hamas\u2019s exploitation of civilian infrastructure \u2014 and civilians \u2014 as shields for its military operations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli military later publicized some evidence to support its case that Hamas operated from within the Shifa complex, including by showing reporters a fortified tunnel constructed underneath its grounds. An <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2024\/02\/12\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-tunnel-israel-hamas.html\" title=\"\">investigation<\/a> by The New York Times suggested that Hamas had used the site for cover and stored weapons there. The Israeli military, however, has struggled to prove its assertion that Hamas maintained a command-and-control center under the hospital complex.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After their initial raid of Al-Shifa in November, Israeli troops withdrew from the area. But in late March, after the military said that remnants of Hamas\u2019s military wing had regrouped there, Israeli forces returned to the hospital, touching off <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/01\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-al-shifa-hospital.html\" title=\"\">two weeks of combat<\/a> in which they said they killed around 200 Palestinians and arrested hundreds of others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/02\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-al-shifa-hospital.html\" title=\"\">The fighting badly damaged many of the hospital\u2019s main buildings<\/a>. Bodies were left scattered in and around the complex, according to a doctor there and a spokesman for the Palestine Civil Defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">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 from Gaza who were \u201carrested and abused simply because they were treating the sick and wounded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The number of Palestinians in Israeli prisons has swelled since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 and Israel\u2019s subsequent invasion of Gaza. Israeli troops have arrested hundreds of people in Gaza as they search for fighters, the military said, while security forces in the occupied West Bank have conducted a crackdown that they say is intended to root out militants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Rights groups say that the arrests are often arbitrary and that the conditions in which Palestinians are held can be inhumane. Israel says the imprisoned Palestinians \u2014 who include avowed senior militants convicted of brutal attacks \u2014 are treated in accordance with international standards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Reporting was contributed by <!-- -->Myra Noveck<!-- -->, <!-- -->Abu Bakr Bashir<!-- -->, <!-- -->Gabby Sobelman<!-- -->, <!-- -->Patrick Kingsley<!-- -->, <!-- -->Bilal Shbair<!-- --> and <!-- -->Aaron Boxerman<!-- -->.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/07\/01\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-israel-shifa-hospital.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Israel released the chief of the Gaza Strip\u2019s largest hospital on Monday after more than seven months of detention, Palestinian health officials said, a move that drew an immediate outcry in Israel even though no charges against him have been made public. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, was taken [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/07\/01\/multimedia\/01mideast-1-cpzh\/01mideast-1-cpzh-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5808,302,74806,43,3502,180,38,31],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85505,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85503\/revisions\/85505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}