The attack turned Shifa into a symbol of war, with many Gazans viewing Israeli attacks on medical facilities as a sign of disregard for Palestinian lives. The detention of Dr. Abu Salmiya reinforces this view. To Israelis, the hospital is an example of Hamas using civilian infrastructure for military purposes.
The Israeli military later released evidence supporting Hamas operations within the Shifa complex, including showing reporters a reinforced tunnel built beneath it. An investigation by The New York Times revealed that Hamas had used the site for cover and stored weapons there. However, the Israeli military has struggled to substantiate claims that Hamas has a command and control center at the facility.
Dr. Abu Salmiya’s release caused uproar among Israeli ministers and Knesset members who were already divided over Mr. Netanyahu’s handling of the war. Benny Gantz, a former key member of 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 make “space.” and budget”. ” for other Palestinian prisoners.
Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, said in a statement that the government had failed to meet its request for additional space in detention centers to arrest more “terrorists in Israel and the Gaza Strip.” Because of this, the Shin Bet and the military were ordered to release a certain number of detainees from Gaza who posed a “lesser risk” to “clearly defined places of detention.”
After the first attack on Shifa in November, Israeli forces withdrew from the area. But in late March, after the military said remnants of Hamas forces had regrouped there, Israeli troops returned to the hospital and began two weeks of fighting in which they said they killed about 200 people. Palestinians and arrested hundreds.
The fighting severely damaged many of the hospital’s main buildings. Bodies were scattered in and around the building, according to a doctor there and a Palestinian civil defense spokesman.
Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement on Monday that Dr. Abu Salmiya and Al-Shifa surgeon Dr. Issam Abu Ajwa had been released. The statement called for the release of all other detained medical staff in Gaza who “have been arrested and abused simply for treating the sick and wounded.”
The health ministry said on Sunday that at least 310 health care workers in Gaza had been detained by Israeli forces since the war began, but did not specify how many had been released.
Abu Bakr Bashir Contributing reporting from London, Myra Novick from Jerusalem and Gaby Sobelman From Rehovot, Israel.
