ISRAEL is subjecting prisoners of war to torture “almost daily” and some have died in interrogation centres, the director of the Gaza al-Shifa hospital Muhammad Abu Salmiya said after his release from detention today.

The director had been held without charge for over seven months after troops stormed the hospital in an operation that became notorious after hundreds of bodies were discovered dumped in mass graves on the grounds.

Israel apparently released him and scores of other detainees to free up space in overcrowded prisons.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angrily demanded an investigation into why he had been freed, though the decision will deepen suspicion that Israeli claims that he allowed the hospital to be used as a Hamas base are without foundation.

It was unclear exactly who had authorised his release, with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant blaming each other’s ministries.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said the whole episode indicated the government’s “lawlessness and dysfunction” and demanded elections, while former War Cabinet member Benny Gantz said the government should start converting office blocks so as to house more prisoners.

Mr Abu Salmiya, who was seized last November while escorting a UN-led evacuation of patients, said Palestinian captives are subjected to “daily physical and psychological humiliation” and regularly beaten up.

“Several inmates died in interrogation centres and were deprived of food and medicine,” he said, adding that medical staff were complicit in prisoner abuse, and that some detainees had had limbs amputated due to poor-quality care.