The detainees endure ‘almost daily torture’, claims al-Shifa Hospital Director Muhammad Abu Salmiya.
from thefreeonline on 2nd July 2024 from Al Jazeera / Agencies…. now on Telegram: t.me/thefreeonline
Israel has freed dozens of Palestinians detained during its war in Gaza, including the director of one of the enclave’s main hospitals.
Israel released 55 prisoners on Monday to free up space in its jails, unconfirmed reports claimed. Speaking shortly after his return to Gaza, al-Shifa Hospital Director Muhammad Abu Salmiya asserted that Palestinian prisoners in Israel’s prisons were facing daily abuse.
In numbers: 200 days of Israel’s vile massacres of 2.3 million imprisoned for 17 years in Gaza
With thousands of Palestinians having been added to those already detained since the war began on October 7, Israel’s prisons are “full,” reported the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation.
Abu Salmiya was arrested amid claims by the Israeli military that Hamas was using al-Shifa Hospital as a base. The medical chief said no charge had ever been laid against him.
Freed after more than seven months of custody, he said detainees endured “daily physical and psychological humiliation” in captivity.
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“Our detainees have been subjected to all kinds of torture behind bars,” he said at a news conference in Gaza. “There was almost daily torture. Cells are broken into and prisoners are beaten.
“Several inmates died in interrogation centres and were deprived of food and medicine,” he added.
Palestinians, holding banners and photos of their relatives, gather to stage a demonstration on demanding release of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in front of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) building in Ramallah, West Bank on January 02, 2024 [İssam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]
… Israel torturing prisoners, Israel-Hezbollah war escalates
Hospital patients flee as Israel orders evacuation of eastern Khan Younis
Prisoners held by Israel are going through ‘tragic conditions’: al-Shifa Hospital director
Doctor from Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital dies in Israeli prison Groups advocating for Palestinian prisoners say Adnan al-Bursh, head of orthopaedics, died as a ‘result of torture’.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/3/doctor-from-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-dies-in-israeli-prison
Recounting the alleged abuse, Abu Salmiya said guards broke his finger and doled out beatings using batons and dogs.
Medical staff were responsible for abuse and neglect too, he said, with some detainees’ limbs amputated due to poor medical care.
The captives were also severely underfed while in custody, he added, surviving on nothing more than a loaf of bread per day for two months. All of them lost at least 30kg (66lb), he said.
Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the allegations of mistreatment but have previously denied such charges.
The Israel Prison Service has denied that Abu Salmiya was released due to lack of space in the country’s jails.
Images from Gaza circulating on social media Thursday showed a mass detention by the Israeli military of men who were made to strip to their underwear, kneel on the street, wear blindfolds, and pack into the cargo bed of a military vehicle.Images from Gaza show Palestinian men being rounded up from shelters, stripped to their underwear and made to wait in the cold while naked and blindfolded. They are later seen being taken away on trucks to undisclosed locations.
Health campaign
Abu Salmiya was among the detainees arrested in November during an Israeli military raid of al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest health facility.
Israel had claimed the complex, where an estimated 2,300 Palestinians were sheltering, was being used as a Hamas command centre, charges staff denied.
During the raid, Israeli forces wrecked the complex’s medical services and fired at people trying to leave the compound, according to doctors. The bodies of at least 179 people, including seven babies, were buried in a mass grave on the hospital grounds.
Al-Shifa is among more than 100 health facilities Israel has raided and attacked during the nine-month war, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
‘Negligence’
Upon their release, most of the released detainees were taken for medical checkups at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Others were brought to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, where dozens of detainees’ relatives showed up to reunite with them and inquire about the fate of those still behind bars, shows footage verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency.
![Palestinian men who had been detained by Israeli forces arrive for a check-up at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, July 1 [Bashar Taleb/AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/AFP__20240701__34ZU3D3__v1__HighRes__PalestinianIsraelConflictDetainees-1719829871.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513)
Several Israeli political figures slammed the decision to release the detainees.
Far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir branded the move as “security negligence”.
Forme war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said whoever ordered their release should be dismissed and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “close some government offices to free up space and budget for prisoners”.
FREEDOM NOW for approx. 10,000 PALESTINIAN HOSTAGES jailed by Israel without charges
Since the Gaza war broke out, Israel has rounded up hundreds of Palestinians from the enclave and thousands more from the occupied West Bank, holding many without charge.
At least 40 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody during this time, an official with the Palestinian monitor Addameer told Al Jazeera.
Abu Salmiya, speaking after his release, said some had been killed in interrogation cells.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
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