TEL AVIV — One of Gaza’s top doctors accused Israel of abuse Palestinian prisoners hours after he was released along with dozens of other prisoners – a decision that sparked anger and recriminations from right-wing parliamentarians and Israel’s security service.
After more than seven months of Israeli detention without charge or trial, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiyathe director of Gaza City Al Shifa Hospitalwas spotted wandering the enclave along with 54 other liberated Palestinians, many of them still wearing their gray prison uniforms.
“If you seek treatment, you are tortured by the nurse and the doctor, and this is against international conventions,” he told an NBC News crew in Gaza of his experiences in what he said were several Israeli prisons.
“We left the prisoners in a very difficult situation. What the prisoners are experiencing now has not happened in the history of the prisoners’ movement,” he added, surrounded by family, colleagues and well-wishers celebrating his return.
In a separate statement from the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, Salmiya said the Palestinian prisoners had been attacked and insulted. Conditions behind bars were “tragic”, he said, adding that there was a lack of food and drink.
NBC News has reached out to the Israel Prison Service for comment. Asked about allegations of past torture, a spokesman for the prison service said it “operates within the provisions of the law” and “all required basic rights are fully implemented.”
Within Israel, the rare release of prisoners sparked anger and recriminations, even among officials and agencies responsible for the captures. It exposed how the war in Gaza has deepened divisions within the Israeli government.
Itamar Ben Gvirthe country’s ultranationalist Minister of National Security, denounced the decision to release the prisoners as “security nakedness” and demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Blok Minister of Defense Yoav Galant and the Shin Betthe Israeli Internal Security Service, of “pursuing independent policies contrary to the government.”
Benny Gantz, a former member of Netanyahu’s now-defunct party war cabinet and one of the prime minister’s main rivals, said the mass release involved militants who helped carry out the execution Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7which left 1,200 people dead and more than 240 people taken hostage.
Calling it “a moral and ethical operational error,” he said in a statement on Telegram that “whoever made the decision had no judgment – and should be fired today.”
NBC News has asked the prison service whether anyone suspected of involvement in the October 7 attacks has been released.
Gallant in a statement attributed the decision to the Shin Bet and the Prison Service, which is under the authority of Ben Gvir, the minister of national security.
Netanyahu’s office, meanwhile, called Salmiya’s release a “serious mistake and a moral failure.” In a statement, it said the decision to release him was taken “without the knowledge of the political leaders or the heads of the organizations.” It added that the prime minister had ordered “a thorough investigation into how this could have happened” and that Shin Bet director Ronen Bar was expected to present the findings within the next 24 hours.
The Shin Bet responded to the scathing criticism by blaming what it said was the Israeli government’s failure to tackle prison overcrowding.
“For about a year now, the General Security Service has been warning in all possible forums, written and verbal, about the dire situation of confinement and the obligation to increase the number of confinement places,” the intelligence service said in a statement. “Without an immediate solution to the incarceration shortage, arrests will continue to be canceled and prisoners will continue to be released.”
For months, Israeli officials had described Al Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, as a hotbed of Hamas activity and a prime example of the militant organization’s use of civilian infrastructure as a “human shield” to mask its operations.
The Israeli military drew international criticism when it laid siege to the sprawling hospital complex in November. Hospital administrators and Hamas denied that the facility had hosted military operations, and Israel’s attempts to justify the attacks on the hospital were met with skepticism.
Hospitals can lose their protection under international law if combatants use them for military purposes.
In recent months, advocacy groups have drawn attention to the plight of medical workers in Gaza. In a rack Last week, the UN Human Rights Office criticized the “reported killing of 500 health workers in Gaza” since October 7.
More than 37,900 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive following the Hamas attacks, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry, which said last week that 310 health workers had been detained.
The killings and arrests – doctors and nurses are often held without charge for months – have sparked outrage among Palestinian leaders.
“Israeli ministers and the opposition must apologize to doctors and health workers for arresting, torturing and ill-treating them, which is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law,” said Mustafa Barghouthi, the secretary general of the West Bank established National Initiative, in a statement.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
