After seven months in detention, Israel released this morning (Monday) the director of Shifa Hospital, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, along with 54 other detainees from the Gaza Strip. Abu Salmiya was arrested starting in November, and even then the IDF and the Shin Bet reported that under his leadership: “The terrorist organization Hamas used many resources, including electricity, to maintain the tunnel system it built under the hospital. In addition, Hamas stored many weapons in and around the hospital “. The announcement emphasized that even after the massacre on October 7, the organization used the hospital as a refuge for Hamas terrorists and even transferred Israeli hostages there. In addition, according to a pathological report, the IDF confirmed that the murder of Corporal Noa Marciano was also carried out in the hospital.
Even in the USA they adopted the IDF’s statements according to which the Shifa Hospital was used as a military headquarters and a place to hold hostages. In addition, intelligence documents revealed that the terrorists evacuated from Shifa several days before the IDF began extensive operations there, and while leaving, the terrorists destroyed documents and electronic equipment in an attempt to hide evidence. Despite this, during the operation in Shifa, the IDF found many intelligence materials related to the abductees, alongside new videos of The horrors recorded by the cameras of the terrorists who committed the heinous murder on October 7.
The publication of the news about the release of the hospital director led to a storm and media noise and rightly so.
Minister Amichai Shikli wrote “Yoav Galant, can we get clarification as to why this man in whose hospital our hostages were murdered and the headquarters of a liberated Hamas was operating?”.
Minister Orit Struck was outraged at the government group, “What?! It is unthinkable to carry out such a move without a government meeting! If you asked for our consent for a kidnapping deal – all the more so for the release of terrorists without any compensation. I demand that everything be stopped and a government meeting be convened.” And added “I’m asking seriously – by what authority?”.
The chairman of the state camp, Benny Gantz, said, “A government that releases those who sponsored the murderers of October 7th and helped hide our abductors made an operational, moral and ethical error – therefore it is not appropriate to conduct our war of existence and should go home. Whoever made the decision lacked judgment – and should be fired today.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir wrote: “The time has come to send the head of the Shin Bet home. He does what he wants, and Galant is with him to the fullest. Put a hold on the cabinet and the government. He conducts an independent policy, does what he wants and in the discussions he became the terrorist’s security officer. Is it crowded with them, not good for them, but he is supposed to take care of their conditions?”
Minister Shlomo Karai wrote: “Israel needs a new security leadership. From the establishment to the tefahot. A leadership that will be committed to the spirit and valor of the fighters as the Prime Minister is committed to, and one hour earlier.”
The chairman of the Israel Beytenu party, MK Avigdor Lieberman, also reacted to the release and said “We have come to find out that the director of the Shifa Hospital is not a doctor, he is a Doctor Mengele, and the decision to release him is moral, security and ethical negligence.”
The parents of Corporal Noa Marciano who, as mentioned, was murdered in Shifa Hospital wrote “Noa was neglected before 7/10, on 7/10 and after. Now, seven months after we buried her, Israel decides to release those who are directly or indirectly responsible for her murder. I am only willing to accept the release of those who have a part in my daughter’s murder as part of a kidnapping deal. Not like that.” In an interview with Ynet, Noa’s father, Avi Marciano, shared the moment when they learned of the release of the director of Shifa Hospital. “We found out about it from the media. The feeling is that we are being killed time and time again. They put a knife in my heart, and it doesn’t come from Hamas, but from my country.” He added painfully, “I don’t know whose fault it is, I know whose responsibility it is – the prime minister, the cabinet, the IDF and the Shin Bet. I expect that there will be a state commission of inquiry that will reveal all the omissions that have been happening in Israel in the last nine months and before that.”
The Prime Minister’s Office stated that “the decision to release the prisoners follows discussions at the High Court in a petition against the detention of prisoners in the Sade Yemen detention facility.” The identity of the released prisoners is determined independently by the security officials according to their professional considerations. The Prime Minister ordered an immediate inquiry into the matter.”
Shin Bet officials also addressed the uproar and said “we are a custody body and do not enter into government decisions regarding the reception or release of security personnel from Gaza.” The Shin Bet stated that there is distress in the prisons and therefore “it was decided to release a number of detainees from the Gaza Strip, who are considered less dangerous.” In addition, they emphasized that “without an immediate solution, arrests will continue to be canceled and detainees will continue to be released.”
For his part, the director of the hospital, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, responded to the uproar at a press conference and said: “I am surprised by the talk of officials in the Israeli government about their lack of knowledge that I have been released from prison. I have been officially released.” He also claimed that “there was torture almost every day in the prisons in Israel. The Israeli court told me that there were no charges against me and that I would be detained until further notice. We were thrown between more than one Israeli prison, and in Ofer prison the prisoner lived every day only on a square of bread.” Muhammad told the Al-Jazeera channel that “the occupation failed to file an indictment against me, even though they brought me before a judge three times. I’m surprised that officials in the Israeli government say they didn’t know. I was officially released.”
Since Abu Salmiya’s arrest last November, the IDF has eliminated approximately 200 terrorists in Shifa and arrested approximately 500 more terrorists, including commanders and senior members of the Hamas terrorist organization. Also, in the IDF’s estimation, the possibility that Hamas will again use the hospital as a terrorist center or as an operational headquarters is low to non-existent.
