The director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, who Israel detained in a recent attack on the medical complex, is being kept at a controversial army base, Sde Teiman, which is also a detention facility, CNN reports quoting recently released former prisoners.

“Two Palestinian prisoners released this weekend from the facility said they saw Abu Safia at the prison, and another former detainee said he heard Abu Safia’s name being read out,” the CNN report said, Al Jazeera reports.

The WHO and authorities in Gaza said they lost contact with Abu Safia after the raid, which also saw the Israeli military force expel dozens of medical staff and patients and shut down the only partially functioning hospital in northern Gaza.

The Israeli army confirmed on Saturday that it arrested the director as he was “suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative” and the hospital was used as a “command and control centre”.

The army has not disclosed his whereabouts and has not provided evidence for its claims.