The Israeli army arrested Al-Shifa Hospital director Muhammad Abu Salmiya, along with several other senior doctors, on 23 November.
“The director of the central and important hospital in the Gaza Strip will be interrogated in the field and handed over to the Shin Bet,” an Israeli source confirmed to the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation.
Al-Shifa Hospital Doctor Khaled Abu Samra told AFP that the arrests were made at dawn Thursday.
The arrests come a day after Hamas and Israel struck a deal for a four-day ceasefire that would see several Palestinian prisoners and Israeli captives released, among other demands.
Although the truce was expected to start on Thursday, a statement by the Israeli prime minister's office said that “the start of the release will take place according to the original agreement between the sides, and not before Friday.”
Abu Salmiya was reportedly given an order by the Israeli army demanding him to evacuate the facility after he had denied the initial decree during the Israeli raid of the hospital.
Al-Shifa Hospital has become a significant focus for the Israeli army, which alleges the medical complex houses a “Hamas command center.”
Last week, Israeli soldiers raided the medical complex after days of attacks, destroying several buildings and forcing thousands of displaced and wounded Palestinians to evacuate on foot. Nonetheless, Tel Aviv has failed to provide much evidence to back its claims.
The UN humanitarian office said on Wednesday that the Israeli military blocked an envoy of ambulances that held 190 injured and sick patients from Al-Shifa Hospital to the south, extending the journey to 20 hours.
The delays, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), are putting “the lives of the wounded and sick people in danger.”
Israeli army personnel raided the hospital last week in search of what they claim to be a base of operations for Hamas military and administration capacity.
Abu Salmiya told Al-Jazeera at the height of the Israeli raids that the building had become a “giant prison.” Still, staff continue to do their best to help patients, adding then that there was a “death of a large number of premature babies due to the Israeli siege imposed on the complex.”
Since the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on 7 October, Israeli airstrikes have killed 14,532 Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, 6,000 of whom being children, according to the government media office.