The detainees suffered “almost daily torture,” said al-Shifa hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya.
Israel has released dozens of Palestinians detained during its war in Gaza, including the director of one of the enclave’s main hospitals.
Israel released 55 prisoners on Monday to free up space in its prisons, according to unconfirmed reports. Shortly after returning to Gaza, al-Shifa hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya said Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails were subjected to daily mistreatment.
As thousands of Palestinians join those already detained since the war began on October 7, Israeli prisons are “full,” the Israeli public broadcaster Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Abu Salmiya was arrested as the Israeli military claimed Hamas was using al-Shifa hospital as a base. The chief doctor said no charges were ever brought against him.
Released after more than seven months in detention, the detainees endure “daily physical and psychological humiliations” in captivity, he said.
“Our detainees were subjected to all kinds of torture behind bars,” he told a news conference in Gaza. “Torture was almost daily. Cells were broken into and prisoners were beaten.
“Several detainees died in interrogation centres and were deprived of food and medicine,” he added.
Recounting the alleged abuse, Abu Salmiya said the guards broke his finger and beat him with batons and the help of dogs.
Medical staff are also responsible for abuse and neglect, he added, with some inmates having limbs amputated due to poor medical care.
The captives were also severely malnourished during their detention, he added, surviving on nothing more than a loaf of bread a day for two months. All lost at least 30kg, he said.
Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the allegations of mistreatment, but have previously denied such accusations.
The Israeli Prison Service denied that Abu Salmiya’s release was due to a lack of space in the country’s prisons.
Health campaign
Abu Salmiya was among those arrested in November during an Israeli military raid on al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest health facility.
Israel had claimed that the compound, where about 2,300 Palestinians were housed, was being used as a Hamas command center, accusations denied by staff.
During the operation, Israeli forces destroyed the compound’s medical services and shot at people trying to leave the compound, doctors said. The bodies of at least 179 people, including seven babies, were buried in a mass grave on the hospital grounds.
Al-Shifa is among more than 100 health facilities that Israel has attacked during the nine-month war, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
‘Neglect’
After their release, most of the detainees were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis for medical examinations. Others were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, where dozens of the detainees’ relatives came to meet them and inquire about the fate of those still behind bars, footage verified by Tel Aviv Tribune’s Sanad fact-checking agency showed.
Several Israeli political figures have criticized the decision to release the detainees.
Far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called the move “security negligence.”
Former War Minister Benny Gantz said whoever ordered their release should be removed from his post and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “close some government offices to free up space and budget for the prisoners.”
Since the start of the Gaza war, Israel has arrested hundreds of Palestinians from the enclave and thousands more from the occupied West Bank, detaining many without charge.
At least 40 Palestinians died in Israeli custody during this period, an official at the Palestinian monitoring group Addameer told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Abu Salmiya, speaking after his release, said some had been killed in the interrogation cells.
