The World Health Organization expresses concern for the fate of the director of Al-Shifa hospital

The World Health Organization said on Friday it had no information on the fate of the director of Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital, Muhammad Abu Salamiya, who was arrested by Israel this week, and called for his rights to be “fully respected.”

The organization said in a statement that the director of the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital was arrested on November 22, along with five other health workers, as they participated in a United Nations-led mission to evacuate patients.

The World Health Organization said three members of the medical staff of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and three members of the Ministry of Health were arrested.

Since then, “two of the six detained healthcare workers have been released,” according to the organization, which added: “We have no information on the safety of the other four healthcare workers, including the director of Al-Shifa hospital.”

The World Health Organization called for “their legal and human rights to be fully respected during their detention.”

The Israeli army first stormed the hospital on November 15, after accusing Hamas of using it as a cover for military installations and command centers, which the movement strongly denies. At the time of the raid, the United Nations estimated the number of people in the compound, located west of Gaza City in the besieged northern Strip, to be around 2,300 people, including patients, medical staff and displaced persons.

Israel had pledged to eliminate the Hamas movement following the attack on its territory on October 7, which it said led to the killing of 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and the kidnapping of around 240 people transported to Israel. Gaza.

According to the Hamas government, Israeli retaliation led to the killing of around 15,000 people in the Gaza Strip, including 6,150 children.

The Israeli army announced on Thursday the arrest of the director of Al-Shifa hospital and the head of a department at the institute.

According to the World Health Organization statement, the organization has so far carried out three missions to Al-Shifa in one week, including an assessment mission on November 18, and a second mission conducted on the 19th of the same month enabled the evacuation of 31 people. newborns.

The third mission, carried out on November 22, in collaboration with the Palestinian Red Crescent, allowed the evacuation of 151 people, including patients, their relatives and healthcare workers, according to World Health.

The evacuation process lasted 20 hours, “including six hours at the checkpoint where the Israeli army examined the team and the patients. This occurred despite the initial agreement to examine the (evacuation) participants only at the point departure, in Al-Shifa hospital,” according to the World Health Organization, which explained that The arrests took place at the checkpoint.

The Hamas Ministry of Health announced that the Israeli army withdrew on Friday from the Al-Shifa medical complex, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, days after storming it and alerting most of the sick and of displaced people to evacuate.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on AFP’s question in this regard.