[News] Gaza hospital director's release exposes Israeli torture

[Anti-Imperialist News]

electronicintifada.net
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/gaza-hospital-directors-release-exposes-israeli-torture>
Gaza hospital director's release exposes Israeli torture

Maureen Clare Murphy
<https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy> Rights and
Accountability
<https://electronicintifada.net/blog/rights-and-accountability> 3 July 2024
------------------------------

Palestinians flee eastern Khan Younis on 2 July.
APA images

Israel released Muhammad Abu Salmiya
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/muhammad-abu-salmiya>, the director of
Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital, on Monday along with dozens of other former
detainees from Gaza, prompting a backlash in Israel and fears for the
doctor’s life.

Meanwhile, international media reports
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/world/middleeast/israel-military-gaza-cease-fire.html>
and statements
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-says-intense-fighting-against-hamas-is-ending-war-go-2024-06-23/#:~:text=JERUSALEM%2C%20June%2023%20(Reuters),longer%20controls%20the%20Palestinian%20enclave.>
made by Israeli officials suggested that Israel may soon scale back its
military operations in Gaza.

But for Palestinians who have endured nearly nine months of genocide, there
has been no respite from the Israeli violence that has claimed nearly
38,000 lives, with thousands more missing and feared dead.

Amid intense bombardment throughout Gaza, Israel this week ordered the
forcible transfer of Palestinians from eastern Khan Younis and Rafah in
southern Gaza, encompassing around a third of the coastal enclave’s
territory and affecting <https://x.com/UNRWA/status/1808053707243663831> a
quarter of a million people.
The UN said that it was the largest such order since Israel demanded the
evacuation of Palestinians from northern Gaza in October. The majority of
Gaza’s population have been displaced from their homes, many times
repeatedly, since then.

The European Gaza Hospital, the largest medical facility in southern Gaza,
is in the area that Israel ordered evacuated, forcing health workers to
transfer patients and displaced families out of the hospital campus. Israel
later denied <https://x.com/cogatonline/status/1808024656978247711> that it
ordered the evacuation of patients and staff from the hospital.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said
<https://x.com/ICRC_ilot/status/1808142119854276759> on Tuesday that the
hospital is no longer functional “because so many staff members have
evacuated” and stressed the need for safe transport of the disabled,
elderly and sick.

“Not all people may be in a position to depart, and any civilian who stays
behind remains protected by international humanitarian law,” the Red Cross
added. “The reality is that there is no safe place in Gaza.”
Some 84,000 Palestinians fled eastern Gaza City
<https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/tens-thousands-displaced-new-gaza-city-escalation>
in recent days after intense attacks by the Israeli military, with tanks
nearing the Salah al-Din road that serves as the main north-south axis in
the coastal enclave.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, has been cut off from
accessing a key aid distribution center in Gaza City’s al-Tuffah
neighborhood amid the fierce fighting.
Hospital director released

Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa hospital, was released by
Israel on Monday after being arrested in November while attempting to
evacuate to southern Gaza and held without charge ever since.

Back in Gaza, Abu Salmiya said
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-01/ty-article/.premium/israel-releases-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-director-ministers-slam-defense-shin-bet-chiefs/00000190-6d20-d499-a5bf-edbe84ad0000>
that he was brought before a judge several times “and even there they
presented no evidence.”

He 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.”
The hospital director said that “prisoners face physical abuse and mental
abuse daily” and that some detainees died during interrogation.

Muhammad Abu Salmiya, wearing dark blue scrubs, in front of Nasser Medical
Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, following his release from Israeli
detention on 1 July.
Moaz Taha APA images

Abu Salmiya added that prison authorities acted vindictively against
prisoners, “including medical staff, some of whom paid with their lives,
like Dr. Iyad al-Rantisi and Dr. Adnan al-Bursh.”

Iyad al-Rantisi, the head of obstetrics and gynecology at the Kamal Adwan
Hospital in northern Gaza, was detained by Israeli troops on 11 November.
It was revealed
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-06-18/ty-article/.premium/israel-arrested-a-senior-doctor-in-gaza-six-days-later-he-died-in-a-shin-bet-facility/00000190-27eb-d14b-a999-27eb9aea0000>
last month, following the expiration of an Israeli gag order, that he died
while being interrogated six days after his arrest.

Adnan al-Bursh, the head of orthopedics at al-Shifa hospital, was detained
by Israeli forces at Al-Awda Hospital in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, in
mid-December and died at Ofer prison
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/renowned-gaza-surgeon-killed-israeli-detention>
in the West Bank on 19 April.

His death was first reported around two weeks later when a released
detainee said that al-Bursh had been tortured and killed. The Israel Prison
Service later confirmed the date of his death.

In December, following the Israeli military’s invasion and capture of
al-Shifa hospital, independent UN human rights experts accused
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/12/gaza-un-expert-condemns-unrelenting-war-health-system-amid-airstrikes>
Israel of waging an “unrelenting war” on Gaza’s health system. Israeli
forces withdrew from al-Shifa hospital in April, leaving it in ruins.

In advance of its attack, Israel had claimed there was a vast underground
complex run by Palestinian fighters under al-Shifa hospital. It even
produced an elaborate animation of the supposed multilevel command center
it claimed was the “main headquarters for Hamas’ terrorist activity.”
After the siege on al-Shifa went unchallenged by its powerful allies,
Israel didn’t bother with such labored pretexts to justify its subsequent
attacks on most of Gaza’s remaining hospitals, perpetrating them in the
open.

Gaza’s medical facilities have been repeatedly targeted and health workers,
patients and their companions have been killed, injured, arrested and
disappeared.

Ghassan Abu Sitta, a British-Palestinian surgeon who worked in Gaza in the
first weeks of the ongoing offensive, has said
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/ghassan-abu-sitta-why-israel-attacks-gaza-hospitals>
that the health sector is a primary target in Israel’s genocide in order to
expedite the ethnic cleansing of the coastal enclave.

More than 50 “highly qualified specialists” are among the some 500 heath
workers killed since early October, according to Reuters
<https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/israel-palestinians-gaza-health/>,
costing Gaza “a network of knowledge that will take years to rebuild.” At
least seven of those specialists were killed in hospitals.
Israel has failed to provide compelling evidence to support its allegations
that Hamas uses medical facilities as human shields, which Hamas and health
workers deny.

After his release to Gaza, Abu Salmiya vowed to return to work and rebuild
al-Shifa hospital “as it was before and even better.”

“This hospital will be a beacon of healthcare for all our community in
Palestine and the Gaza Strip,” he said.
“Baseless and fabricated”

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said
<https://x.com/EuroMedHR/status/1807718271090569506> that the release of
Abu Salmiya without charge “proves beyond [a] reasonable doubt that the
[Israeli military’s] pretext for raiding and destroying al-Shifa hospital
was entirely baseless and fabricated.”

Israel alleged at the time of Abu Salmiya’s arrest that he had allowed
Hamas to exploit the hospital for armed resistance purposes.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel said
<https://x.com/PHRIsrael/status/1808084528730181637> on Tuesday that Israel
arbitrarily detained Palestinians in Gaza, “including medical personnel,
who are protected under international law.”

Detained medical personnel “were presented as supposed evidence that
al-Shifa hospital’s medical personnel were involved in military activities,
thereby forfeiting the hospital’s right to special protection.”

The group said that Abu Salmiya’s release and his testimony of Israel’s
widespread use of torture and humiliation, sometimes resulting in death,
“highlights the urgent need to free all detained healthcare workers and
others who were unjustly arrested and incarcerated.”

The Euro-Med Monitor compared Abu Salmiya’s experience to that of Mohammed
El Halabi <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mohammed-el-halabi>, the
Gaza-based program director for the international charity World Vision, who
was convicted in 2022
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-sentences-gaza-aid-worker-12-years-after-sham-trial>
after a sham trial lasting six years over trumped up charges of funneling
resources to Hamas. Failing to secure a plea deal, Israel resorted to
convicting El Halabi on the basis of secret evidence.

Israel has attempted to manufacture cases against other senior medical
officials in Gaza.

In December, Israel released an alleged videotaped confession
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-forces-closure-gaza-hospitals-kills-dozens-al-shifa>
made by Ahmed al-Kahlout, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital who was
arrested at the facility days earlier.

Israel claimed that al-Kahlout admitted to being a senior figure in the
armed wing of Hamas and that the medical facility was used by the group as
a command hub.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said at the time
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/gaza-starves-death-toll-climbs-past-20000>
that the allegedly coerced statement was “a desperate and ridiculous
attempt” by Israel to justify its crimes, especially those against Gaza’s
health sector, including its fabricated
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/did-israel-build-bunker-under-al-shifa-hospital>
allegations
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-fails-show-evidence-hamas-command-center-al-shifa-hospital>
concerning al-Shifa hospital and its staff.

The release of the director of al-Shifa indicates that one of the central
propaganda claims of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has fallen apart.

“The release of Dr. Abu Salmiya shows they have absolutely nothing against
him and al-Shifa,” Euro-Med Monitor stated.

Given the backlash in Israel following his release, Euro-Med Monitor warned
that “the life of the al-Shifa hospital director is in critical danger” if
the Israeli military rearrests or extrajudicially kills Abu Salmiya.
Abu Salmiya’s release set off a furor in Israel, with opposition leaders
saying the government had failed and ministers and senior security
officials trading blame, according to
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/ministers-trade-blows-with-shin-bet-after-release-of-shifa-hospital-director-to-gaza/>
*The
Times of Israel*.

Israel’s domestic intelligence apparatus, the Shin Bet, said
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-01/ty-article/.premium/israel-releases-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-director-ministers-slam-defense-shin-bet-chiefs/00000190-6d20-d499-a5bf-edbe84ad0000>
that Abu Salmiya met “all criteria regarding the perceived level of danger
compared to other prisoners” but said that his release “will undergo
investigation.”

The release of such a high-profile individual would likely not have
occurred without the approval of the Shin Bet, an indication that it had
found no pretext to continue detaining him.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, appeared to blame Abu
Salmiya’s release in part on a high court ruling
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israels-desert-torture-camp-faces-legal-challenge>
ordering the transfer detainees from Sde Teiman, a desert prison camp where
thousands of Palestinians have been disappeared and subjected to
ill-treatment and torture since 7 October.

The Israel Prison Service denied
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-says-severe-mistake-to-free-gaza-hospital-head-panel-to-oversee-future-releases/>
that Abu Salmiya was released due to overcrowding in detention centers and
published footage of the cell in which the hospital director was held at
Nafha prison. The agency added that it does not determine which prisoners
are released.

Abu Salmiya said that he had been held in multiple facilities during his
seven months of detention.
Ben-Gvir’s mission

On Tuesday, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister and a
kingmaker in Netanyahu’s far-right coalition, stated
<https://x.com/itamarbengvir/status/1808031178277925263> that one of his
top goals since assuming that role was to worsen conditions for Palestinian
prisoners and accused the Shin Bet of undermining his agenda by warning
that this would lead to an explosion with regional implications.

Ben-Gvir added that after 7 October, he was able to “finally carry out” his
mission through a number of measures including reducing prisoners’ access
to showers and food. He said that his proposal to carry out the death
penalty against “terrorists” would resolve the issue of overcrowding in
detention centers.

Palestinians who have been detained in recent months have described the
systematic use of torture including rape in Israeli detention.
Khaled Mahajneh, a Palestinian lawyer who visited the Sde Teiman prison
camp where Israel is holding people arrested in Gaza, said that the desert
facility is “more horrific than Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo,” the notorious
prisons where American personnel tortured and humiliated detainees.

Mahajneh spoke with Muhammad Arab, a journalist detained at Sde Teiman who
was “nearly unrecognizable after 100 days” in the facility and was “covered
with dirt and pigeon droppings,” according to
<https://www.972mag.com/sde-teiman-prisoners-lawyer-mahajneh/> *+972
Magazine.*

The journalist testified that “detainees are continually blindfolded and
tied up with their hands behind their backs, forced to sleep hunched over
on the floor without any bedding.”

Prisoners are in poor health due to a lack of food and access to hygiene
facilities. Arab told Mahajneh that he witnessed Israeli guards sexually
assault “six prisoners with a stick in front of the other detainees after
they had violated prison orders.”

*The New York Times* and the UN have reported
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israels-desert-torture-camp-faces-legal-challenge>
instances of rape and other severe abuses at Sde Teiman.

Israel is currently holding
<https://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-situation-update-185-gaza-strip>
nearly 10,000 Palestinians, including around 3,400 held without charge or
trial under administrative detention orders and 1,400 held as “unlawful
combatants.”

“These figures do not include Palestinians from Gaza who have been detained
by the Israeli military since 7 October 2023 and their number remains
unknown,” according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs.

Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet, reportedly said
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-says-severe-mistake-to-free-gaza-hospital-head-panel-to-oversee-future-releases/>
in a recent letter to Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials that
detention centers meant to hold 14,000 prisoners were currently holding
21,000 people.

The contents of Bar’s letter was reported by Israel’s Channel 12 news. He
reportedly warned that the situation in the prisons “is a danger for the
future of the country’s security,” as it would pose a liability for Israel
in international courts.
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