One expert told NBC News, “That is a generational loss that will take us a long time to replace.”
Jerusalem — 14 physicians and 2 nurses informed NBC News that the Israeli force is demolishing medical institutions in Gaza and weakening the country’s healthcare sector. They all said that this operation included murdering and arresting medical personnel in their homes and places of employment.
Though the Israeli military has justified its conduct by claiming that Hamas is using Gaza’s medical institutions as operational bases, the sights are nevertheless horrifying.
Israeli troops are seen at the Al Khair hospital with their weapons drawn and people standing with their hands up in a picture that was provided with NBC News.
Video captured the tank moving through the streets of Nasser Hospital, close by, and the sound of automatic gunfire as the Israeli forces invaded the complex on February 14. The hospital’s halls were filled with confusion, smoke, and rubble.
Witness Dr. Ahmed Almoghrabi, a plastic surgeon, claimed, “They attacked the orthopedic department and killed and injured patients there.” Since then, he has left Gaza for Egypt, driven by concerns for his kids.
“I just had two choices. He told NBC News, “They will either murder us or imprison us, and both options are extremely horrible.
He said that the majority of his hospitalized colleagues were now incarcerated. He said that there were more people slain within the Al-Shifa compound, including Dr. Ahmad Maqadmeh, a reconstructive surgeon.
All 16 of the medical professionals that NBC News spoke with indicated they thought the Israeli military was specifically targeting physicians and hitting medical institutions.
According to a July 4 list released by Gaza’s health ministry and interviews with NBC News, at least 50 specialized doctors, including some of Gaza’s most experienced physicians, have died since Israel began its onslaught after Hamas’ terror attacks and hostage-taking on October 7. The World Health Organization reports that as of June, at least 20 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals had been damaged or shut down.
The Israeli military has often claimed that Gaza’s medical institutions are being utilized by Hamas as bases of operations, locations to stockpile weapons, and hiding spots for agents among the civilians taking refuge there. Both Hamas and the enclave’s health authorities have refuted this claim.
The Israel Defense Forces claimed in an NBC News statement that the “involvement of medical staff, including doctors, directly in Hamas’ terror activity” was another “regrettable outcome of Hamas’ exploitation of hospitals.” When questioned whether it was going after physicians in their homes, it remained silent.
When NBC News asked the physicians, none of them claimed to have observed terrorist activities inside hospitals or encountered Hamas members. Hamas and Palestinian health authorities have consistently refuted claims made by the terrorist organization that it has used hospitals as operational bases.
The physicians have maintained a somber log of the deaths and disappearances in a WhatsApp group. Information sharing between physicians began two years ago. However, after almost nine months of conflict in Gaza, it has now developed into a platform for exchanging information about medical experts as well as images and videos of hospitals that are being targeted.
One of them is Ghassan Abu-Sittah, the doctor. Another acquaintance or coworker may have passed away, according to a recent notice in the medical WhatsApp group.
In an interview with NBC News last month at his London office, the cosmetic surgeon from the United Kingdom said, “Every time you get a message from this group, your heart sinks thinking: there’s another piece of bad news.” He showed a note that said one of his pals had passed away.
The message said, “Dr. Ahmed Almaqadma is confirmed dead with his mother.”
He said that several had been attacked in their houses. He brought up the example of the lone kidney expert in the enclave, Dr. Hammam Alloh, who he said “was killed within half-an-hour of getting home.” He continued by saying that around half an hour after he and his sister got home, Dr. Medhat Saidam, a prominent plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Al-Shifa Hospital, was slain in an attack on his family’s house.
“The highly qualified, educated class, the people who can afford to leave, are leaving Gaza, so maybe the goal of making Gaza uninhabitable is being achieved here,” he said, adding that some of the physicians leaving Gaza were a “shadow of their former selves” and “unable to work anymore.”
Israeli soldiers are also detaining medical personnel. According to the WHO, 214 medical professionals were in custody as of May.
Among others who have passed away while in detention is well-known orthopedic physician Dr. Adnan al Bursh. After the attack on Al Shifa Hospital in November, he told NBC News that he was going to remain put “because there are lots of patients,” including women and children.
Both the UN human rights office and the Gaza health ministry reported that he passed away on April 19 in the occupied West Bank’s Ofer jail. The U.N. Special Rapporteur Tlaleng Mofokeng said in a statement that there were “serious concerns that he died following torture at the hands of Israeli authorities” in relation to this case.
The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, was contacted by NBC News after the Israel Prison Service declined to respond. It remained silent. Regarding the specifics of his demise, the IDF remained silent.
The 53-year-old doctor who oversaw the maternity department at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern city of Beit Lahiya, Dr. Iyad Rantisi, passed away in a “detention center clinic” six days after being arrested on November 11 “on suspicion of his involvement in holding Israeli hostages,” the Shin Bet said in a statement to NBC News on June 18. It said that an investigation was underway to determine the cause of his death.
In a phone conversation last month, two family members of general surgery expert Dr. Khaled Al Serr informed NBC News that they hadn’t heard from him since March 24. Speaking behind pseudonyms out of concern for retaliation, they said they had no idea if he was still living or dead.
In a statement released last month, rights organization Amnesty International demanded his immediate release, stating that he has been “held in conditions that amount to enforced disappearance” since his arrest at the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.
NBC News inquired about Al Serr’s location many times with the IDF. Its answers reiterated the charge that Hamas was using Gaza’s hospitals, ignoring the problem of his confinement. A request for information received no response from the Shin Bet.
A few of the emancipated have issued grim warnings about the terrible circumstances in prison.
Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa hospital, claimed he has seen prisoners handled horribly after being freed from the Nafha Prison in southern Israel earlier this month without being charged. “Prisoners are subjected to physical and psychological abuse on a daily basis,” he said during an on-camera interview with NBC News crew members in Gaza.
His remarks were confirmed by a nurse, who revealed to NBC News—speaking under anonymity out of concern for consequences—that he was transferred to three different places while he was being held. According to him, inmates were made to sit “for eighteen to nineteen hours a day” for more than a month.
His story is very similar to pictures shown in an Israeli television report from February about a prison camp in southern Israel. The video showed inmates kneeling in close rows, blindfolded, and surrounded by armed guards.
The nurse said they were often questioned about the locations of Israeli prisoners and whether or not medical staff were Hamas members. They were also assaulted, verbally humiliated, and refused access to food and restrooms.
The nurse added that captives were not provided with proper medical treatment, just as Abu Salmiya. According to him, one prisoner’s right leg developed gangrene, and they “amputated his limb below the knee.” He said, “I’m sure his family does not know that their son lost a limb.”
The plastic surgeon from London, Abu-Sittah, said that it would probably take years to replace specialists in medicine.
Using the example of Dr. Hammam Alloh, who trained for six years in medical school, three years in internal medicine, and then another six years as a specialist resident in kidney disease before he died in an airstrike in November, he said, “That is a generational loss that will take us a long time to replace these human resources.”
The number of persons in need of care will only increase as long as cease-fire negotiations continue and there is no indication that the fighting will finish.
Additionally, the deaths of the doctors will put further strain on the already overworked medical system in the enclave, where official figures indicate that since Israel began its military campaign in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack that resulted in 1,200 deaths and over 250 hostages, more than 38,700 people have died, according to health officials.
The UN has calculated that even once the fighting stops, it may take up to 14 years to clean the debris in the enclave and stop the Israeli onslaught.
Director Abu Salmiya of the institution said, “God willing, we will return to work and rebuild Al Shifa Medical Hospital as it was and better.”
