The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested on Thursday, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip.
Doctor Khaled Abu Samra, who works at Al-Shifa Hospital, affirmed in press statements that Mohamed Abu Salmiya was detained along with a number of medical personnel.
Muhammad Abu Salmiya was arrested along with several other “senior doctors”, Khalid Abu Samra, a department chief at the hospital, told the AFP news agency on Thursday.
Abu Salmiya has been frequently quoted by international media about the conditions inside Al-Shifa.
Instructions to evacuate the hospital were issued on Saturday, prompting the exodus of hundreds of patients and displaced toward the supposedly safer south of the Palestinian territory.
Salmiya said last week that he had received the evacuation order from Israeli forces after having refused a previous one.
Al-Shifa Hospital has been a major focus of Israel’s ground offensive in northern Gaza. The army ordered an evacuation of the facility on Saturday, but the handful of staff remaining there say there are about 180 patients still inside.
For the 48th consecutive day, the Israeli occupation’s massive carnage continues to claim more lives in the Gaza Strip as its army persists in bombing homes and buildings and targeting civilians.
The Palestinian death toll from Israeli ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip has climbed to 14,532 since Oct. 7, including more than 6,000 children and 4,000 women.
The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian and human rights law as it exposes civilians’ lives to extreme danger, which requires an immediate international intervention.
