At a recent meeting of the National Directorate for Public Diplomacy at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, concerns were raised about privacy violations by medical staff at Sheba Hospital, where hostages freed from Hamas captivity were treated. Haaretz reports medical personnel repeatedly photographed the hostages and disclosed details about their captivity and health conditions.
Despite the seriousness of these violations, representatives from Sheba Hospital and the Ministry of Health were not present at the meeting. The hospital administration only learned about the accusations on June 26, ten days after the meeting.
The National Directorate of Public Diplomacy, in coordination with the Ministry of Health, had established guidelines for handling returned hostages. These included instructions for medical personnel on how to communicate with the press: messages should be brief, free of confidential information, and given in both Hebrew and English.
Doctors were allowed to report the number of freed hostages and provide general descriptions of their injuries without specifics. Hospital representatives were prohibited from making statements or inviting the press without prior approval from the Ministry of Health and the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.
While these rules were followed during an earlier hostage release, they were not adhered to after the rescue of Shlomi Ziv, Noah Argamani, Andrei Kozlov, and Almog Meir Jan. The hospital received only a brief notice about the "sensitive secret operation," meaning the National Directorate of Public Diplomacy was not involved, and medical staff were not properly instructed.
