GAZA: The head of the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital said on Monday after being freed from more than seven months of detention that he had been tortured by the Zionist entity. Al-Shifa Hospital Director Mohammed Abu Salmiya was among dozens of Palestinians released and returned to Gaza for treatment, according to Zionist authorities.

Abu Salmiya said he and other prisoners were put through severe torture in Zionist prisons, after being detained since the Oct 7 cross-border attacks by Hamas. “Several inmates died in interrogation centers and were deprived of food and medicine,” according to Abu Salmiya, who said he still had a broken thumb. “For two months no prisoner ate more than a loaf of bread a day,” he added. “Detainees were subjected to physical and psychological humiliation.”

The medical chief said no charge had ever been made against him. The Zionist Shin Bet intelligence agency said it had decided on the release with the Zionist military “to free up places in detention centers”.

The agency said it “opposed the release of terrorists” who had taken part in attacks on Zionist civilians “so it was decided to free several Gaza detainees who represent a lesser danger”.

However commenting on X, formerly Twitter, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called Abu Salmiya’s release “with dozens of other terrorists” a “security abandonment”. Zionist forces detained Abu Salmiya during one of a number of raids on Al-Shifa. Al-Shifa Hospital has been reduced to rubble by successive raids since the Zionist entity launched its assault on Gaza.

After crossing back to Gaza near the city of Khan Yunis, five detainees were admitted to Al-Aqsa Hospital and the others were sent to hospitals in Khan Yunis, a medical source said. An AFP correspondent at Deir al-Balah saw some detainees in emotional reunions with their families. Abu Salmiya was not the only top medical practitioner detained. The Gaza European Hospital in Khan Yunis said the head of its orthopedic unit, Bassam Miqdad, was among those freed on Monday.

In May, Palestinian rights groups said a senior Al-Shifa surgeon had died in a Zionist jail after being detained. The Zionist army said it was unaware of the death. The Zionist offensive has killed at least 37,900 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry. – AFP