In this morning’s NZ Herald headlines with Chereè Kinnear, 5 Kāinga Ora board members resign, findings released over a tragic toddler incident and Donald Trump is granted partia
Israel has released the director of Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital without charge, seven months after he was detained on accusations of working with Hamas militants during a raid on the enclave’s largest medical complex.
Mohamed Abu Salmiya was arrested from a UN convoy in late November as it carried wounded civilians away from the besieged hospital compound, which Israeli officials alleged was a command centre for Hamas. A Washington Post investigation later found that evidence presented by the Israeli government fell short of supporting that claim.
Abu Salmiya was one of about 50 Palestinian prisoners released back into the Gaza Strip; as he and other detainees reunited with family and recounted details of their detention, officials in Israel traded blame for the hospital director’s release.
Abu Salmiya’s whereabouts have been unknown to the public since his arrest. In a news conference upon his return to Gaza, he said abuse was common in detention, and that no lawyer had been granted access to the facility he was in.
“I was subjected to torture almost daily,” he said.
The director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, speaks to the press at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis after being released by the Israeli army following more than seven months of detention. Photo / Getty Images
Abu Salmiya was held under Israel’s far-reaching Unlawful Combatants Law, a form of administrative detention that allows Gazans to be held for extended periods without charge and without being classified as prisoners of war. The 2002 law permits a Palestinian to be jailed for up to 45 days without a detention order, up to 75 days without seeing a judge and up to six months without legal counsel.
A judge probably reviewed Abu Salmiya’s arrest warrant multiple times during his detention, though the exact legal proceedings he went through and the evidence presented against him remains under seal, said Tal Steiner, the director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel.
“We really have to ask ourselves whether this man was so dangerous, and the evidence against him so compelling, and how did that change,” she said. “We have to highly scrutinise and be very sceptical about the security allegations that the military or the ISA makes towards people from Gaza,” she said, using the acronym for Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.
Another doctor released, Issam Abu Ajwa, said he had faced 17 days of “brutal” torture after he was detained during a raid on al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City in late December. He spoke to The Post by phone and shared photographs that appeared to show significant weight loss.
“They poured cold water on us, they turned on the air conditioners and air fans, forced us to stand on our tiptoes and tied us by our hands to the ceiling,” he said. “They would untie us every six hours for 10 minutes.”
The Israel Defence Forces said Abu Salmiya was not in their custody and did not immediately respond to questions about Abu Ajwa.
In response to questions about the doctors’ detention and their allegations of torture, the Israeli prison service said: “We are not aware of the claims you described. Nonetheless, prisoners and detainees have the right to file a complaint that will be fully examined and addressed by official authorities.”
Two other doctors from Gaza - Adnan al-Bursh, a prominent surgeon, and Iyad al-Rantisi, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia - have died in Israeli custody.
