Agencies
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.
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. “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 centers and were deprived of food and medicine,” he added.
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 a lack of space in the country’s jails.
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 center, charges staff denied.
