‘Send Shin Bet chief home’: Fury over release of Al Shifa Hospital director from prison

Ministers and opposition leaders expressed outrage following the release of the director of Al Shifa Hospital from Israeli jail. 

Mohammad Abu-Salmiya was arrested seven months ago after IDF raided the Al Shifa Hospital and found that Hamas had been using it for military purposes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement passing on responsibility for the release of the hospital director, saying “the decision to release the prisoners followed discussions at the High Court on a petition against the detention of prisoners at the Sde Teiman detention facility. The identity of the released prisoners is determined independently by security officials based on their professional considerations.”

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also refused to take responsibility for the release, saying: “The procedure for incarcerating security prisoners and their release is under the Shin Bet and the Israel Prison Service, and is not subject to the approval of the defence minister.”

Opposition Leader Yair blasted the “chaos in the government” calling it a |direct continuation of the recklessness and dysfunction of the Israeli government which is causing damage to the security of Israel’s citizens.”

“The defense minister ‘did not know,’ the national security minister ‘was not involved,’ — [there is] an exchange of accusations. Everything is leaked. This is what moral and functional disintegration looks like,” Lapid said.

Former war cabinet minister and leader of National Unity party, Benny Gantz, also lashed out at the government following the release of the hospital director.

“A government that frees those who sheltered the murderers of October 7 and helped to hide our hostages made a moral and ethical operational error and thus is not fit to lead our existential war and needs to go home….whoever made the decision lacked judgment and should be dismissed today,” he said.

“Mr. Prime Minister, if you shut down some government ministries, I am sure that space and budgets will be freed up for prisons. You cannot continue waging war this way,” Gantz concluded.

Ministers in Netanyahu’s security cabinet also reacted strongly to the news, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir calling for the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

“The time has come to send the head of the Shin Bet home,” Ben-Gvir reportedly said according to KAN public broadcaster.

Shin Bet on its part released a statement, explaining why the hospital director had to be released: “For about a year now, the Shin Bet has been warning in every possible forum… about the incarceration crisis and the necessity to increase the number of [cells], in light of the need to arrest terrorists in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”

“The incarceration crisis leads to the cancellation of arrests of suspects involved in terror activities on a daily basis, and to a direct harm to the security of the state. Unfortunately, these requests… which were forwarded to all the relevant parties, chief among them the national security minister, which is responsible for this, went unaddressed, and in practice, the number of [cells] did not increase as needed,” the statement added, according to a translation by Times of Israel.