Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital Director Released. Gantz’s Wrath: “Government Go Home”
Israel has released Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital, who was arrested in November during the first Israeli military operation in the medical complex. Salmiya returned to Gaza along with at least 50 other Palestinian prisoners, who were released because the prisons are overcrowded, the Shin Bet, the internal intelligence service, confirmed. The former director of Gaza’s largest hospital was arrested on November 23 for questioning about the “terrorist activities” of the Islamist organization Hamas in the clinic, after the Israeli army discovered one of the terrorist organization’s tunnels under the facility.
Abu Salmiya’s release has sparked a wave of controversy in Israel. The first to attack was the Israeli Minister of National Security, the far-right figure Itamar Ben Gvir, who spoke of “security negligence”. Even harsher was Benny Gantz, the centrist leader who left the war cabinet three weeks ago to return to the opposition: “A government that releases those who sheltered the October 7 killers and helped hide our hostages has committed a moral and ethical operational error and is therefore not fit to lead our existential war and must go home,” he said.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he had been kept in the dark about the release. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an investigation.
