Release of Gazan Hospital Director Draws Outcry in Israel

[Pelican Press 0]

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Release of Gazan Hospital Director Draws Outcry in *******

The raid turned Al-Shifa into a symbol of the war, and many Gazans saw *******’s targeting of medical institutions as a sign of disregard for ************ life. Dr. Abu Salmiya’s detention reinforced that view. To Israelis, the hospital was an example of ******’s exploitation of civilian infrastructure for military purposes.

The ******** military later publicized some evidence to support its case that ****** operated from within the Shifa complex, including by showing reporters a fortified tunnel constructed underneath its grounds. An investigation by The New York Times suggested that ****** had used the site for cover and stored weapons there. The ******** military, however, has struggled to prove its assertion that ****** maintained a command-and-control center under the facility.

Dr. Abu Salmiya’s release caused turmoil among ******** ministers and members of Parliament who were already at odds over Mr. Netanyahu’s handling of the war. Benny Gantz, a former key member of Mr. Netanyahu’s war cabinet who quit the government last month, called the decision a “moral and ethical operational error,” and accused the prime minister of releasing Dr. Abu Salmiya to free up “space and budget” for other ************ prisoners.

The Shin Bet, *******’s domestic intelligence agency, said in a statement that the government had ******* to meet its demand for additional space in detention centers to allow for the arrests of more “terrorists in ******* and the Gaza Strip.” Because of that, the Shin Bet and the military had been required to release a certain number of detainees that posed “a lesser danger” from Gaza to “clear places of incarceration,” it said.

After its initial raid of Al-Shifa in November, ******** troops withdrew from the area. But in late March, after the military said that remnants of ******’s military wing had regrouped there, ******** forces returned to the hospital, touching off two weeks of combat in which they said they ******* around 200 Palestinians and arrested hundreds of others.

The fighting badly damaged many of the hospital’s main buildings. Bodies were left scattered in and around the complex, according to a doctor there and a spokesman for the Palestine Civil Defense.

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 “arrested and abused simply because they were treating the ***** and wounded.”

The health ministry said on Sunday that at least 310 medical workers in Gaza had been detained by ******** forces since the start of the war, but did not specify how many had been released.

Abu Bakr Bashir contributed reporting from London, Myra Noveck from Jerusalem and Gabby Sobelman from Rehovot, *******.

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