Al Mayadeen's correspondent in the Gaza Strip confirmed that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) released 50 detainees from the Gaza Strip, including the chief of al-Shifa Medical Complex, Mohammad Abu Salmiya. 

The IOF detained the Palestinian at the Kuwait checkpoint with another surgeon on November 23, 2023, subjecting him to severe torture and humiliating treatment because he refused to record a video accusing the Resistance of turning the hospital into an alleged "military barracks and combat operations rooms." 

Abu Salmiya said in a statement, upon his release, "What detainees are currently going through, the Palestinian people have not seen since the Nakba," adding that "hundreds of medical staff have been targeted by occupation, some detainees were murdered under torture."

He stressed that "detainees are enduring tragic conditions due to lack of food and water." 

In a tweet on X, the detainee doctor’s cousin, Adham Abu Salmiya, reported that Mohammad had been subjected to sleep deprivation and continuous torture, and that his health had rapidly and severely deteriorated during his detention.

Israeli war of 'revenge'

In the same context, the head of the Commission for Detainees' Affairs, Qaddoura Fares, confirmed in an interview with Al Mayadeen that prisoners are subjected to a war of 'revenge' in the strictest sense. He noted that hundreds of testimonies from Palestinian prisoners confirm the violations, beatings, and starvation they are exposed to.

Fares added that there was an agreement among detainees not to appear before any Israeli court that treats Gaza detainees as "illegal combatants."

In response to Abu Salmiya's release, the Israeli Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir expressed his frustration, saying that "it is time to send the head of the Shin Bet home." 

Earlier yesterday, on June 30, Ben-Gvir appeared in a video clip calling for the implementation of the death penalty for prisoners and shooting them in the head instead of giving them food, in response to accusations of practicing a policy of starvation in Israeli prisons.

🚨JUST IN: Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir:

The Palestinian prisoners must be killed by shooting them in the head, and until passing this law of execution of Palestinian prisoners, we will give them little to live on. pic.twitter.com/elhPFwd6q4

— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws) June 30, 2024