Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Mohammed Mohammed Abdel Halim Abu Salmiya was born in Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on October 18, 1973, to a Palestinian refugee family originally from the depopulated village of Al-Joura, in the occupied Gaza Strip. He is married with four children. He completed his primary education in Al-Shati refugee camp schools and his secondary education at Al-Karmel Secondary School for Boys in Gaza City, where he obtained his high school diploma in 1991. He earned a bachelor's degree in general medicine from Bogomolets National Medical University in Ukraine in 1998, and obtained the Palestinian Board in Pediatrics in 2013.
He worked as a pediatrician at the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Yunis between 2000 and 2004, and became the Medical Director of Al-Nasr Children's Hospital in Gaza City between 2007 and 2013. He assumed the position of Head of the Oncology Department at Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Rantisi Hospital in 2013, and became Director of Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Rantisi Children's Hospital in Gaza City in 2015. He has been the General Manager of Al-Shifa Medical Complex since 2019, and has worked as a lecturer at Al-Azhar University and the Islamic University in Gaza City.
He organized pediatric conferences inside the Gaza Strip and participated in medical conferences abroad, including a conference for the Palestinian Ministry of Health held in Cairo in 2023. He oversaw development projects for the health sector in the Gaza Strip, including the renovation of medical equipment at the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, the renovation of old buildings such as the old maternity building, and the opening of the new emergency department on July 10, 2023, which included 62 beds. Abu Salmiya communicated with Arab and international institutions to explain the suffering of the Palestinian health sector under the stifling Israeli siege and its ongoing wars on the Gaza Strip, and contributed to the entry of medical aid provided from abroad into the Strip.
During his tenure at Al-Shifa Hospital, the COVID-19 pandemic spread in late 2019, the occupation escalated its raids on the Gaza Strip on more than one occasion, the outbreak of the Sword of Jerusalem War in May 2021, and then the Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023. The occupation launched a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which lasted for a long time. The hospital was under great pressure at the time, as the number of casualties exceeded its capacity. It was receiving a thousand wounded daily, and in one case, it received a thousand martyrs in a single hour and two thousand wounded. Abu Salmiya oversaw the expansion of the complex's equipment during the war. The number of intensive care rooms increased from eighteen to sixty, and the number of operating rooms increased from eighteen to thirty. Medical tents were also prepared to receive the wounded. The complex was subjected to siege and deliberate shelling by the occupying forces, resulting in the deaths of all patients in intensive care, as well as six premature babies. As a result of the deteriorating situation, Abu Salmiya decided to evacuate the hospital and transfer patients to hospitals in southern Gaza, in coordination with the World Health Organization. The occupation forces then stormed the complex for the first time in November 2023.
Abu Salmiya was awarded the Arab Doctor Award in December 2024 at the Arab Health Ministers' Meeting, in recognition of his efforts in managing the Al-Shifa Medical Complex during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, and his refusal to be swayed by the occupation's allegations regarding the complex's use for military purposes.
Abu Salmiya was elected as Deputy Head of the Doctors Syndicate in the Gaza Strip and headed the Friendship Sports Club.
Abu Salmiya calls for national unity and integrated efforts to achieve comprehensive development for the Palestinian people. He believes that developing the health sector is not only a humanitarian necessity, but also an essential part of national resilience. He believes that improving health services and infrastructure can contribute to strengthening the Palestinian people's ability to confront daily challenges.
Abu Salmiya stresses the importance of supporting the rights of Palestinian refugees and strengthening Arab solidarity with the Palestinian health sector. He asserts that the health sector is a trust that must be preserved, regardless of the challenges.
Abu Salmiya suffered under the occupation. His relative, Jawad Abu Salmiya, a student at Birzeit University, was martyred in 1986. He was arrested by Israeli occupation forces during their raid on the Al-Shifa Medical Complex on November 23, 2023, while transporting 65 patients from the hospital on Salah al-Din Street. The occupation forces stopped him at a military checkpoint for seven hours and then arrested him along with a number of medical staff. He was interrogated by the occupation intelligence at the Netzarim interrogation center inside the Gaza Strip, then transferred to the Shikma interrogation center in Ashkelon, and then transferred to Ofer prison near Ramallah. He was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture throughout his detention, and remained in prison until his release on July 1, 2024. After his release, Abu Salmiya spoke about the tragic conditions of Palestinian prisoners, accusing the occupation of “torture,” pointing to the severe shortage of food and drink and the physical humiliation to which prisoners are subjected on a daily basis. He stressed that the occupation targets everyone, including medical personnel, some of whom were martyred under torture.
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