A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed Thursday that it has stopped coordinating with the World Health Organization to evacuate patients after the arrest of the director of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City.
The ministry's spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said in a statement to Saudi news source Al-Hadath that Israeli forces are pressing to evacuate the hospital as soon as possible and accused the United Nations of bearing the responsibility for the arrest of medical personnel in the area.
Khalid Abu Samra, a chief of department at Al-Shifa, confirmed that the facility's director, Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, and several other senior doctors were arrested at the hospital, a major focus of Israel's fight against Hamas, reports The Times of Israel.
Reports said Abu Salmiya is being questioned by Israel Defense Forces intelligence and the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security service. Israel Army Radio reported that the doctor was detained as he was moving to evacuate the hospital to move to the south of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military confirmed on Thursday that the director of Al Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip had been held for questioning over evidence that the facility had been used as a command and control center for Hamas.
The military said Abu Salmiya had been in charge of the sprawling complex as Hamas militants built up a network of military infrastructure and stored weapons inside the hospital and its grounds.
"In the hospital, under his management, there was extensive Hamas terrorist activity," it said in a statement.
Israeli troops entered the complex earlier this month and have uncovered what they say is at least one well-equipped tunnel as well as a quantity of weapons which it said showed how the hospital was used by Hamas.
The military provided no details on the circumstances of his detention but the Palestinian health ministry said Abu Salmiya and a number of doctors were arrested at dawn at a checkpoint on the road linking northern Gaza to the south.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al-Kaila said the arrests showed that Israel was flouting international humanitarian law.
Israel says it has discovered Hamas infrastructure inside the Al-Shifa Medical Center, and the country's health officials have condemned the World Health Organization for refusing to clearly condemn Hamas as a terror organization.
The IDF announced Tuesday that it had breached the massive blast door found in a tunnel underneath the hospital, after having published video footage of a 180-ft tunnel shaft at the bottom of a 33-ft deep staircase, ending at a blast door with a firing port.
The door wasn't immediately breached, as forces were concerned there could be booby traps around and behind it.
Hamas condemned the arrest of Abu Salamiya, calling on international bodies, including the Red Cross and the World Health Organization to work to release the doctor immediately, reports Al-Hadath.
Hamas also said that it is in contact with the Red Cross and the WHO to work "to secure his release and all the medical personnel who were arrested simply for staying."
Munir Al-Bursh, the Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said last weekend that the Al-Shifa complex's medical staff, wounded, and displaced were forced at gunpoint to evacuate the hospital.
The Palestinian Red Crescent says 190 injured and sick people, along with medical teams, were evacuated from the hospital to other locations in the southern part of Gaza.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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