Gaza: Doctors Under Attack (2025) Movie Script
1
A group of Palestinian
emergency workers and medics
are on a rescue mission.
Their ambulance is clearly marked,
with lights flashing.
RAPID GUNSHOTS
Israeli soldiers
open fire, and start
to kill the rescue workers.
They said the convoy was suspicious
because its lights were off.
But when 15 bodies were exhumed
from a mass grave, this video
from the phone of one of the dead
medics exposed the Israeli version
of events as untrue.
SHOUTING, GUNSHOTS
This is just one
attack amongst hundreds
on Palestinian healthcare workers.
As Israel has bombed Gaza,
hundreds of Palestinian doctors
and medics have refused
to leave their hospitals.
We are in the theatre,
in the operating room.
Full darkness.
No water, no electricity.
But we have a hero -
surgeons in Gaza.
SIREN WAILS
Homes, schools
and universities have been
destroyed, killing and injuring
tens of thousands.
But from the first day of the war,
Israel attacked the one thing
Palestinians needed most -
its healthcare system.
21 months on, and every
one of Gaza's 36 main
hospitals has been attacked,
forced to evacuate or destroyed.
Bam!
And Israel has been killing the very
people trying to keep
the healthcare system alive -
its doctors and medics -
despite hospitals and healthcare
workers being protected
under international law.
He got injured.
They shooted at us
in the operating room.
Israel claims Hamas uses hospitals
as part of its military strategy.
Hundreds of healthcare
workers have been killed.
Hundreds have been detained.
Many of them have been
forcibly disappeared.
This film is a forensic
investigation into Israeli military
attacks on hospitals in Gaza,
and allegations of targeting
and abuse of doctors
and healthcare workers.
Our Palestinian team on the ground
have gathered testimony from health
workers and their families.
And Israeli whistle-blowers have
told us they've witnessed
Palestinian prisoners being tortured
and that some Israeli
medics are complicit.
I don't even think that
in the Israeli society, there
is a need for a cover-up these days.
You can do almost whatever you want
when it comes to Gazans.
Sderot is an Israeli
town bordering Gaza.
It was raided by Hamas militants
on October 7th and at least 70
people were killed here.
SHOUTING
DANCE MUSIC
In total,
around 1,200 people were killed
by Hamas and other militant groups,
and 251 were taken
as hostages into Gaza.
MAN SHOUTS: Allahu Akbar!
Israelis have been coming to this
vantage point in Sderot
to pay their respects to the dead...
..and to watch Gaza being attacked.
For over a week, Israeli forces have
been raiding northern Gaza,
especially Jabalia refugee camp,
which you can see from here.
There have been reports of over 300
Palestinians have been killed.
We just heard a massive boom and saw
the smoke rising behind us.
And reports just coming in now,
Israeli Air Force has bombed
the Al-Falah Medical Centre
in Jabalia, northern Gaza.
Another medical centre
that's been attacked.
At the start of the war,
the Israeli Army targeted
Gaza's largest hospital,
Al-Shifa.
The hospital was already
overwhelmed with casualties
from strikes on Gaza City.
Mohammad Abu Salmiya
was the hospital's director.
In early October, there
were close to 150 specialists
working at Al-Shifa,
among them two orthopaedic surgeons,
Mohammed Obeid and Adnan Al Bursh,
seen here on the left.
Al-Shifa became a symbolic
target for Israel.
The Israeli military
claimed there was a Hamas
command centre beneath it,
and even released this video
animation of what it
said it looked like.
CCTV footage was later released
by the Israeli Defense Forces,
the IDF, showing two injured
hostages being rushed
into the hospital by Hamas
militants on October the 7th.
The IDF's bombing campaign
was driving tens of thousands
of displaced people to seek refuge
in and around Al-Shifa.
Israel had cut off electricity
and water to the Gaza Strip.
Hospital generators were quickly
running out of fuel.
We are in the theatre,
in the operating room.
Full darkness, no
water, no electricity.
But we have a hero -
surgeons in Gaza.
We are working now in surgery
with chargeable light,
with manual ventilation.
The Israeli Army dropped thousands
of leaflets ordering the population
of northern Gaza to move south,
and issued evacuation orders
for hospitals in the north.
SIRENS WAIL
EXPLOSION
On November 3rd,
an Israeli strike hit a convoy
of ambulances exiting the hospital.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said
15 people were killed.
At least 60 were injured.
The Israeli Army claimed
the ambulances were transporting
Hamas militants, but it did not
provide any evidence of this.
Three days later, the hospital's
solar panels were struck,
destroying one of its last sources
of energy and killing
at least one person.
SCREAMING
On November 10th,
a tank shell hit tents
outside the hospital.
It was the first of several strikes
on the hospital complex in 24 hours,
including on a maternity ward.
Within days, Israeli troops had
completely surrounded the hospital.
Hospital administrators said
there wasn't enough fuel
to keep generators running.
As a result, at least 40
patients died, including
four premature babies.
Doctor Adnan Al Bursh joined medical
staff to dig a mass grave.
The IDF finally raided Al-Shifa.
It failed to provide sufficient
evidence showing the existence
of a key Hamas command centre,
and Israel has continually
prevented access for
an independent investigation.
Patients who could began
to leave the hospital.
They were accompanied
by around 60 medical staff,
including surgeons Adnan Al Bursh
and Mohammed Obeid.
The route led to the south of Gaza,
but there weren't enough
doctors in the north.
As soon as they could,
Doctors Al Bursh and Obeid left
the IDF-ordered route and headed
north to the Indonesian Hospital.
The war had separated
Adnan Al Bursh from his wife,
Yasmine, and their children.
But the Indonesian Hospital
and its vicinity was also
targeted by the IDF.
Again, the IDF said a Hamas tunnel
complex lay beneath it...
..and also that rockets had been
launched from sites close by.
CHILD SCREAMS
Dr Al Bursh's ward
was struck on November 20th.
This footage, broadcast
on Al Jazeera, shows him
injured after the attack.
12 patients on the ward were killed.
Three days later, the Israeli Army
issued evacuation orders, then
raided and shut down the hospital.
Dr Al Bursh was on the move again.
He joined Dr Obeid
at Al Awda Hospital,
their third in short succession.
This hospital had come under Israeli
attack just days before.
SHOUTING
Nine months
later, Al Awda Hospital
was partially functioning.
Dr Mohammed Obeid was
still working there.
During a lull in the fighting,
he told us about the
attacks on the hospital.
Two weeks after the ward
was hit, Dr Obeid says
the Israeli Army gave the director
of the hospital an ultimatum.
Dr Al Bursh made a final
call to his family.
There is no footage
of Adnan Al Bursh being seized,
but Al Jazeera obtained these
pictures showing men
stripped to their underwear
in the vicinity of the hospital.
We don't know if there are any
medics in these pictures.
Like hospitals, medics are given
extensive protections
under international law,
regardless of their political views.
The Israeli Army said
Dr Al Bursh was arrested
on suspicion of terrorism.
They provided no evidence of this.
Dr Al Bursh praised the October 7th
attacks at the time,
and has been supportive of militant
groups in the past, like some other
doctors in this film.
Following three of the hospital
raids that we've investigated,
we found that medics were taken
to locations human rights groups
have described to us as black sites,
where there's no judicial oversight.
HE GIVES ORDERS
Footage of the sites is rare,
but this was filmed by a member
of the IDF in a football
stadium in Gaza City,
and was posted online
in December 2023.
We can't confirm if medics
are in these images,
but thousands of Palestinians have
been taken to these
sites, including medics.
We travelled to Ramallah,
in the occupied West Bank,
to meet Budour Hassan,
an Amnesty International researcher.
Now, you've been investigating
black sites in Gaza.
What are these black
sites being used for?
In these sites, the soldiers have
absolutely complete power
to abuse, to torture,
to hit, to humiliate the detainee,
without any oversight.
What can you tell me
about the detainment of Palestinian
doctors and healthcare workers?
So, if there is one characteristic
for which this war has stood out
it's the systematic targeting
of the Palestinian healthcare
sector in the Gaza Strip.
We're not talking about 10, 20, 30,
40 healthcare workers.
We're talking about
hundreds of detainees.
Israeli authorities would say that
maybe these healthcare workers know
some information about hostages,
or they knew information about Hamas
fighters being treated.
But on many occasions,
these doctors are probably
interrogated just once or twice -
and that's it.
The torture and unlawful treatment
to which healthcare workers
are subjected is evident intent
of the Israeli authorities
to destroy Palestinians.
So there is also an element
of genocidal intent.
And destroying the healthcare
sector, basically taking it out
of service through different means -
not always necessarily
by directly attacking them,
but by also detaining hundreds
of healthcare workers.
Budour says she's identified
at least four black sites so far.
So, do you think there
are other black sites that
you haven't heard about,
that you haven't been
able to identify?
I think what we were able
to identify is just a drop
in an ocean of horror.
This image of a black
site was posted online.
We've been told the four
men in the foreground
are all healthcare workers.
One of them is now in Egypt.
You are one of these men.
Which one are you?
This is who I am.
You're that one?
Yes.
VOICEOVER: Khaled Hamouda
is a specialist surgeon.
It was shocking.
I mean, this is really shocking.
Yes.
It looks apocalyptic.
And later, you said that
you were put into this pit?
It's a huge hole,
you know, very high.
A month before this picture
was taken, Dr Hamouda was working
at the Indonesian Hospital.
After it was attacked and shut down
by the Israeli Army,
he was forced to move
to Kamal Adwan Hospital,
a short walk from his home.
This is your home?
This is where I live.
OK.
Our building, it's three floors.
Yeah.
He shared the building
with his extended family,
three of whom were doctors.
He says they were the only
occupants of the building.
On December 3rd, 2023, his house
was hit by a direct air strike.
Ten of Khaled Hamouda's
family were killed.
So, can you tell us what happened
after they attacked
it, where you went?
We moved away about
30m - here, exactly.
Mm-hm.
In front of this building.
So all these buildings
were still standing and only
your building was hit?
Yes.
So you ran up the street?
Yes.
Up to another building?
We thought we were safe now,
because the air strike finished
and the building almost destroyed.
Yes.
And about ten of you sat outside
this building in the road?
Yes.
And that's when a drone strike hit?
Yes.
Khaled Hamouda was injured.
He was taken to
Kamal Adwan Hospital.
The two strikes killed 12 members
of Khaled Hamouda's family,
a family of doctors.
We asked the IDF why they targeted
Khaled Hamouda's family home.
They did not respond
to this question.
Khaled Hamouda and his surviving
family joined thousands of others
taking refuge in the grounds
of his workplace,
Kamal Adwan Hospital.
For a week, the hospital
was bombarded, before being raided
and then forcibly evacuated.
The UN says Israeli soldiers
detained over 70 medics.
Khaled was amongst them,
and was separated from his two
surviving children.
The Israeli Army said
they had detained 90
terrorists during the raids -
including the hospital
director, whom they claimed
was a Hamas operative -
and again said that the hospital
was being used as a command
and control centre.
This is Kamal Adwan Hospital.
They took us, we walk
all the street.
Yeah.
And they ask the doctors
to sit down there.
Mm-hm.
It's here where Khaled
was photographed.
Khaled says he was taken to an
adjacent building and interrogated.
After eight hours, where he says
he and others were violently beaten,
Dr Hamouda was then
transported to Israel.
The forcible transfer of prisoners
across borders is prohibited
under international law.
The IDF told us that those found not
to be involved in terrorist activity
are released as soon as possible.
Barely a week after his daughter
and wife were killed,
Dr Hamouda was in Israeli detention.
He says he was held in stress
positions, and on one occasion
forced to grip barbed wire.
Dr Hamouda has expressed support
for Hamas on social media,
including the attacks on October
7th, and mourning a relative
who was a senior Hamas commander.
After three weeks,
he was released without charge.
The IDF told us they rejected
the claims made on the use of black
sites to avoid judicial oversight,
as well as claims regarding enforced
disappearances, and that they follow
international and Israeli law.
In the occupied West Bank,
we meet academic Dr Layth Hanbali,
from the research centre
The Institute for Palestine Studies.
He's been tracking Israel's attacks
on Gaza's healthcare system,
using data collected
by the organisation
Healthcare Workers Watch.
They've documented the deaths
of 118 doctors, 65 of them
killed in their own homes.
We've heard of incidents
where doctors have been hit
while in their homes.
Are these just accidents?
So, the Israeli Army claims to use
precise strikes in order to target
identified either terrorists
or terrorist infrastructure,
and that it aims to minimise
unintended casualties.
And so, whether it's
because the Israeli Army has
deliberately chosen to assassinate
those individuals, or because it
doesn't care that it kills them
and it considers them collateral
damage, it has made a choice to kill
them, whether it's collateral damage
or whether it's assassination.
The massive loss of expertise
will take years to rebuild.
Structures can be built very
quickly, but healthcare
professionals require years
to be trained.
And so that's going to
have a massively detrimental effect
on the health of the Palestinian
population for years to come.
By January 2024, Gaza's Ministry
of Health calculated that
over 23,000 Palestinians
had been killed...
..and the UN estimated that 60%
of Gaza's homes had been
damaged or destroyed.
Only 13 out of Gaza's 36
hospitals were functioning.
With Al-Shifa shut down,
the largest medical facility
operating in Gaza was now
Nasser Hospital in the south.
Our colleague Jaber Badwan has been
meeting the families of medics
who have been killed,
detained or disappeared.
One of them is a missing surgeon
called Khaled Al Serr.
He was taken from Nasser Hospital
by the IDF in March 2024.
This is Khaled's mother, Kawther.
This is Khaled's brother, Wael.
We travelled to Egypt in September
2024 to meet a doctor who'd been
with Khaled Al Serr at Nasser
Hospital.
Ahmed Moghrabi was the only
reconstructive surgeon
left in southern Gaza.
OK.
Hello, my friend, again
from the operating room.
I have one child, two years old.
You were in Nasser
with Dr Khaled Al Serr.
Can you tell me about him?
The Israeli Army had
surrounded Nasser for weeks.
Like thousands of other
Palestinians, Dr Moghrabi
and his family were sheltering
at the hospital.
EXPLOSIONS
They are bombing.
The IDF began striking
the hospital and its vicinity
and cutting off supplies.
It's a really crime,
it's a really crime.
They attacked a very populated area.
Displaced people here
cannot cross this road.
Ahmed Moghrabi filmed people
being targeted by Israeli snipers
at the hospital gate.
It's a child.
ON VIDEO: As you see,
just dead body.
So that's the entrance of Nasser.
This is the entrance.
Right.
Dr Moghrabi captured this moment
after an armed drone shot
a nurse on his ward.
Allahu Akbar.
During this period, hospital staff
told us that at least 14 people
were killed by snipers or drones.
A mass grave was dug for them
and the many others who had died
in the hospital grounds -
just as in Al-Shifa.
The Israeli military
said Nasser Hospital
was being used to hide hostages.
A number of freed hostages say
they were held at Nasser
until they were released.
Did you ever see any hostages
being held at Nasser?
On February 15th, both
Doctors Moghrabi and Khaled Al Serr
were working when Israeli forces
shelled and then finally
raided the hospital.
Khaled Al Serr was on the ward.
Dr Moghrabi fled with his family.
Dr Moghrabi says he and his family
had to pass through an Israeli Army
checkpoint where soldiers
were searching out medical
staff, amongst others.
Dr Moghrabi believes
that he and his family
managed to escape only
because he removed his scrubs.
After days of continuous war
in Gaza, the Israeli Army invaded
the hospital by soldiers
and by tanks, bulldozers.
They displaced all the healthcare
workers and all patients
from all the buildings to be
condensed into one department.
Inside the hospital,
Dr Khaled Al Serr was filming
the patients who remained.
Israeli soldiers then
rounded people up.
Like in other hospital raids,
Palestinians are stripped and bound.
Even patients still
in their beds are zip-tied.
The IDF said that it had
arrested around 200 people,
including what it described
as terrorists who posed as medics.
According to the Ministry
of Health in Gaza, 70 medics
were detained during the raid.
The IDF withdrew, while Dr Al Serr
and the remaining staff tried
to keep the hospital running.
But weeks later, they raided again.
This time, Dr Khaled
Al Serr was taken.
According to the UN,
the attacks on the hospitals we've
investigated appear to follow
a pattern of assault
that the Israeli Army has been
replicating across Gaza.
This United Nations report,
published in December 2024,
sets out the pattern
generally being used.
First, the Army strikes hospital
buildings and surroundings.
Then it besieges the hospital with
ground troops, preventing access
and blocking medical supplies.
It raids the hospital,
often using tanks and bulldozers.
It detains medical staff,
patients and displaced people
sheltering in the hospital.
It then forces anyone
remaining to leave.
And finally, Israeli troops
withdraw, effectively rendering
the hospital non-functional.
It is a war crime to attack civilian
hospitals unless they're used
to commit acts harmful to the enemy,
but even then, any response
must be proportionate.
In response to the UN report,
Israel said, "Hamas has chosen
to methodically abuse
the protection of
medical facilities.
Hamas embeds its tunnel
system and infrastructure
within the premises."
And so Israel says their operations
are therefore "legally justifiable".
As we're gathering testimonies
from medics and their families
in Gaza about how they're
being targeted, we're
also collecting evidence
about what happens once they're
brought here to Israel.
In the occupied West Bank,
lawyer Khaled Zabarga
is representing ten detained
healthcare workers from Gaza.
His clients are being
held in Ofer Prison.
For the first seven months
of the war, Israel prevented lawyers
communicating with detainees.
Now they can apply to visit
after 90 days of detention,
but very few applications
have been approved.
We can't go in with him, but this
is footage from inside the prison.
PRISONER SCREAMS
On the anniversary
of the October 7th attacks,
Israel's Channel 13 filmed a raid
on Ofer Prison by the Israel Prison
Service, in what they said
was a search for weapons.
Later that evening,
we met with Khaled Zabarga
on his return from Ofer Prison.
He said his client showed signs
of physical and mental torture.
We put these allegations to the IDF,
and they didn't respond.
There had been no sightings
of Khaled Al Serr, the missing
surgeon from Nasser Hospital...
..until this video was posted
of a hospital administrator
called Ahmed Al Kel,
who had just been
released from prison.
Like thousands of Palestinians,
the two men had been transferred
from black sites in Gaza
to detention centres in Israel.
Khaled Al Serr had been held at
a military base called Sde Teiman.
That, in the distance,
is the Sde Teiman military facility.
We're not going to get any closer.
Now, originally, it was a military
base and vehicle warehouse,
but after the 7th October Hamas
attacks, it was quickly converted
into an interrogation site housing
hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
It's now become notorious after
reports of torture, rape and abuse.
Israel's Channel 12 broadcast
a leaked video purporting to show
a gang rape at Sde Teiman.
The victim's injuries were
so severe, he was taken to hospital
for emergency surgery.
When nine soldiers were arrested,
ultranationalist Israelis stormed
Sde Teiman demanding their release.
Five of those soldiers
were later charged with abuse.
CHANTING
Some Israeli politicians
debated whether the rape
of prisoners should be allowed.
There's been hardly any
testimony from soldiers
stationed at Sde Teiman,
but we've found one soldier willing
to talk about what he saw.
But he says he can only
do this anonymously
because he feels under threat.
Even before going there,
I had heard rumours of what...
..you know, what was done
to detainees there, with either
people bragging about physically
abusing them or sort
of joking about it.
They would say, like,
to me that I would have
to physically abuse detainees.
Can you tell me about
the detainees who were doctors
or healthcare workers?
There were a lot of detainees that
were known to be detained
from the hospitals in Gaza.
And the main reason, I was told,
that they were detained
is that they possibly witnessed
hostages either being transported
to places or being given care
in hospitals in Gaza.
Did you ever witness
detainees being abused?
Yeah.
Soldiers that were enthusiastic
to get their hands on detainees.
What do you mean by that?
Even among commanders,
one of the incidents in which, like,
one of the soldiers which had beaten
a detainee, he wouldn't shut up
about it, and I recall
the commander being in on it
and showing his respect for that.
From what you're saying,
it sounds like this behaviour
wasn't just tolerated,
it was encouraged.
Yeah, yeah.
In those sort of circles,
people that guard the detainees sort
of view themselves as fighters
or something, and I think
this whole experience
was still viewed as pretty just.
What do you think about that now?
I mean, it was shocking.
I'm deeply ashamed.
CHILDREN CHATTER
Our producer,
Jaber Badwan, interviewed several
medics who'd been held
at Sde Teiman, then
released back into Gaza.
Walid Khalili is a paramedic.
This is him at Al-Shifa
hospital in 2023.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society
says 27 of their paramedics have
been killed while on duty
since October 2023.
34 of their ambulances have been
taken out of service
due to Israeli attacks.
Walid Khalili was arrested
while on a rescue mission
and taken to Sde Teiman,
and later transferred
to another prison.
Dr Saeed Marouf is a paediatrician.
He's back treating Gaza's
wounded and malnourished
children at Nasser Hospital,
now partially functioning.
According to the United Nations,
much of Gaza has been on the brink
of famine because of Israel's severe
restrictions on aid.
Dr Marouf was detained for 45 days,
mostly at Sde Teiman.
General Surgeon Issam Abu Ajwa
and his whole team were taken
from the operating theatre
in Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
He makes shocking allegations
about his 137 days in Sde Teiman.
Dr Abu Ajwa makes a shocking
allegation that others have told us
- that some Israeli medics refuse
to treat Palestinian prisoners
and even physically abuse them.
We spoke to Israeli medics
who confirmed that some doctors had
mistreated Palestinian detainees,
but they were all too scared to go
on camera for fear of retribution.
Finally, one doctor who'd been
stationed at Sde Teiman's field
hospital, among others,
agreed to meet on
condition of anonymity.
I remember at least one case
where a very painful procedure
was being done and the patient
got no consent.
Things were not explained
to him in his language,
so he didn't know what was going on.
And, to the best of my knowledge,
no painkillers were administered
to him around that procedure.
And I was there.
I saw that happening,
and I saw him screaming,
and I saw no-one stopping it.
And why do you think
this was happening?
Why weren't they using
anaesthetic on this patient?
Well, I think that was retribution.
Like, that was a way
to inflict pain.
So the scary part is how
I could not recognise that.
When I saw that, and I recognise how
I have normalised the fact that even
those patients are defined
and are called just
by a five-digit number.
They don't have a name,
they don't move.
They are blindfolded, so you do not
look at them in the eyes.
So you're taking a lot
of the humanity and the empathy that
you might feel away.
So there is no doubt that,
in many ways, I am an accomplice,
as well as an Israeli physician,
to how we have been treating Gazans.
Were you given any guidelines,
or were you briefed
about the parameters
within which you could work?
The only guidelines that we see
is about, like, keeping
ourselves anonymous.
Just because they wouldn't
want their names coming out to,
let's say, foreign countries
and foreign journalists just
because they might be liable,
potentially, of war crimes.
What happens if you speak out?
Well, I might be
viewed as a traitor.
So in this atmosphere,
where people are scared to speak
out, do you think this
is causing a cover-up?
I don't even think that
in the Israeli society, there
is a need for a cover-up these days.
You can do almost whatever you want
when it comes to Gazans.
Honestly, I think that's how
the Israeli society has been
dehumanising Palestinians for years.
It didn't start on October 7th.
It's nothing new.
The IDF and the Israel Prison
Service did not respond
to the allegation that Israeli
doctors mistreated detainees.
But the IDF said detainees can
request medical care.
Dr Khaled Hamouda had also been
detained at Sde Teiman.
His detention had coincided
with another doctor -
the surgeon from Al-Shifa Hospital,
Adnan Al Bursh.
What was Adnan's state of mind like?
Did he look healthy to you?
In mid-April, Dr Adnan Al Bursh
was transferred to Ofer Prison.
He died on the day of his arrival.
What did you think when you heard
Adnan had died in prison?
Testimony from other prisoners
provided to an Israeli human rights
group describes prison guards
beating Dr Al Bursh and throwing him
to the ground before his death.
The Israel Prison Service says
it is not aware of any
of the claims made in this film,
and the IDF says they act
in accordance with international
law, and the abuse of detainees
is strictly prohibited.
Israeli documents show that
65 Palestinians have died
in its detention since October 2023.
Along with Adnan Al Bursh,
there are at least three other
healthcare workers -
Dr Iyad al-Rantisi,
head of obstetrics at
Kamal Adwan Hospital,
Dr Ziad Al-Dalou from
Al-Shifa Hospital,
and paramedic Hamdan Abu Anaba.
In October 2024, Israeli forces
launched another ground
invasion of northern Gaza.
They issued evacuation orders
to the remaining 400,000
Palestinians and cut
all aid reaching them.
Once again, Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda,
and the Indonesian Hospitals came
under attack, and the UN
Secretary-General warned
the world it needed to act
to prevent ethnic cleansing.
But the plan to clear
northern Gaza was delayed.
The director of Kamal Adwan
Hospital, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya,
was one of several doctors refusing
to leave his patients.
Here he is standing next
to Dr Mohammed Obeid.
Allahu Akbar.
In late October, following another
raid, an Israeli drone strike
killed his son, Ibrahim.
The next day, he spoke
to Al Jazeera.
After more than two
months under attack,
and with the hospital in flames,
it was forced to finally close.
Israel says it detained over
200 militants in the area,
but the hospital says Israel
detained many healthcare workers,
like Dr Abu Safiya.
This is the last time he was seen
in Gaza by his colleagues,
walking towards an Israeli tank.
Dr Abu Safiya was taken
to Sde Teiman, and is now
being held in Ofer Prison.
Israel accuses him of
having a rank in Hamas.
In March 2025, an Israeli
court classified him
as an unlawful combatant,
and ordered his continued
imprisonment without
charge or trial.
His lawyer says he's not a terrorist
and that he's been held
in solitary confinement,
shown signs of torture,
and denied proper medical care.
Having worked through four
separate hospital sieges,
Dr Mohammed Obeid was taken
by Israeli soldiers
on October 26th, 2024.
He is still being held.
Over a year after his death,
the body of Adnan Al Bursh has not
been returned to his family in Gaza.
After more than six months
in detention, Dr Khaled Al Serr,
the surgeon who stayed
on at Nasser Hospital
through the worst,
returned to his family.
Like all of those doctors we've
spoken to detained by Israel,
he was released without charge.
And like all of those doctors,
Khaled Al Serr says he was tortured.
Dr Al Serr was released a year
after the war began.
A war in which over 1,500 healthcare
workers have reportedly been killed,
including at least 50
highly qualified specialists.
A war in which Gaza's healthcare
system has been destroyed.
In May 2025, the IDF struck
the European Hospital,
saying it killed Hamas military
chief Mohammed Sinwar.
In June, it issued an edited video
it said showed a tunnel under
the hospital where Sinwar and other
militants died, and gave a media
tour to some journalists.
Also in May, Israeli government
minister Bezalel Smotrich
vowed to destroy Gaza.
A group of Palestinian
emergency workers and medics
are on a rescue mission.
Their ambulance is clearly marked,
with lights flashing.
RAPID GUNSHOTS
Israeli soldiers
open fire, and start
to kill the rescue workers.
They said the convoy was suspicious
because its lights were off.
But when 15 bodies were exhumed
from a mass grave, this video
from the phone of one of the dead
medics exposed the Israeli version
of events as untrue.
SHOUTING, GUNSHOTS
This is just one
attack amongst hundreds
on Palestinian healthcare workers.
As Israel has bombed Gaza,
hundreds of Palestinian doctors
and medics have refused
to leave their hospitals.
We are in the theatre,
in the operating room.
Full darkness.
No water, no electricity.
But we have a hero -
surgeons in Gaza.
SIREN WAILS
Homes, schools
and universities have been
destroyed, killing and injuring
tens of thousands.
But from the first day of the war,
Israel attacked the one thing
Palestinians needed most -
its healthcare system.
21 months on, and every
one of Gaza's 36 main
hospitals has been attacked,
forced to evacuate or destroyed.
Bam!
And Israel has been killing the very
people trying to keep
the healthcare system alive -
its doctors and medics -
despite hospitals and healthcare
workers being protected
under international law.
He got injured.
They shooted at us
in the operating room.
Israel claims Hamas uses hospitals
as part of its military strategy.
Hundreds of healthcare
workers have been killed.
Hundreds have been detained.
Many of them have been
forcibly disappeared.
This film is a forensic
investigation into Israeli military
attacks on hospitals in Gaza,
and allegations of targeting
and abuse of doctors
and healthcare workers.
Our Palestinian team on the ground
have gathered testimony from health
workers and their families.
And Israeli whistle-blowers have
told us they've witnessed
Palestinian prisoners being tortured
and that some Israeli
medics are complicit.
I don't even think that
in the Israeli society, there
is a need for a cover-up these days.
You can do almost whatever you want
when it comes to Gazans.
Sderot is an Israeli
town bordering Gaza.
It was raided by Hamas militants
on October 7th and at least 70
people were killed here.
SHOUTING
DANCE MUSIC
In total,
around 1,200 people were killed
by Hamas and other militant groups,
and 251 were taken
as hostages into Gaza.
MAN SHOUTS: Allahu Akbar!
Israelis have been coming to this
vantage point in Sderot
to pay their respects to the dead...
..and to watch Gaza being attacked.
For over a week, Israeli forces have
been raiding northern Gaza,
especially Jabalia refugee camp,
which you can see from here.
There have been reports of over 300
Palestinians have been killed.
We just heard a massive boom and saw
the smoke rising behind us.
And reports just coming in now,
Israeli Air Force has bombed
the Al-Falah Medical Centre
in Jabalia, northern Gaza.
Another medical centre
that's been attacked.
At the start of the war,
the Israeli Army targeted
Gaza's largest hospital,
Al-Shifa.
The hospital was already
overwhelmed with casualties
from strikes on Gaza City.
Mohammad Abu Salmiya
was the hospital's director.
In early October, there
were close to 150 specialists
working at Al-Shifa,
among them two orthopaedic surgeons,
Mohammed Obeid and Adnan Al Bursh,
seen here on the left.
Al-Shifa became a symbolic
target for Israel.
The Israeli military
claimed there was a Hamas
command centre beneath it,
and even released this video
animation of what it
said it looked like.
CCTV footage was later released
by the Israeli Defense Forces,
the IDF, showing two injured
hostages being rushed
into the hospital by Hamas
militants on October the 7th.
The IDF's bombing campaign
was driving tens of thousands
of displaced people to seek refuge
in and around Al-Shifa.
Israel had cut off electricity
and water to the Gaza Strip.
Hospital generators were quickly
running out of fuel.
We are in the theatre,
in the operating room.
Full darkness, no
water, no electricity.
But we have a hero -
surgeons in Gaza.
We are working now in surgery
with chargeable light,
with manual ventilation.
The Israeli Army dropped thousands
of leaflets ordering the population
of northern Gaza to move south,
and issued evacuation orders
for hospitals in the north.
SIRENS WAIL
EXPLOSION
On November 3rd,
an Israeli strike hit a convoy
of ambulances exiting the hospital.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said
15 people were killed.
At least 60 were injured.
The Israeli Army claimed
the ambulances were transporting
Hamas militants, but it did not
provide any evidence of this.
Three days later, the hospital's
solar panels were struck,
destroying one of its last sources
of energy and killing
at least one person.
SCREAMING
On November 10th,
a tank shell hit tents
outside the hospital.
It was the first of several strikes
on the hospital complex in 24 hours,
including on a maternity ward.
Within days, Israeli troops had
completely surrounded the hospital.
Hospital administrators said
there wasn't enough fuel
to keep generators running.
As a result, at least 40
patients died, including
four premature babies.
Doctor Adnan Al Bursh joined medical
staff to dig a mass grave.
The IDF finally raided Al-Shifa.
It failed to provide sufficient
evidence showing the existence
of a key Hamas command centre,
and Israel has continually
prevented access for
an independent investigation.
Patients who could began
to leave the hospital.
They were accompanied
by around 60 medical staff,
including surgeons Adnan Al Bursh
and Mohammed Obeid.
The route led to the south of Gaza,
but there weren't enough
doctors in the north.
As soon as they could,
Doctors Al Bursh and Obeid left
the IDF-ordered route and headed
north to the Indonesian Hospital.
The war had separated
Adnan Al Bursh from his wife,
Yasmine, and their children.
But the Indonesian Hospital
and its vicinity was also
targeted by the IDF.
Again, the IDF said a Hamas tunnel
complex lay beneath it...
..and also that rockets had been
launched from sites close by.
CHILD SCREAMS
Dr Al Bursh's ward
was struck on November 20th.
This footage, broadcast
on Al Jazeera, shows him
injured after the attack.
12 patients on the ward were killed.
Three days later, the Israeli Army
issued evacuation orders, then
raided and shut down the hospital.
Dr Al Bursh was on the move again.
He joined Dr Obeid
at Al Awda Hospital,
their third in short succession.
This hospital had come under Israeli
attack just days before.
SHOUTING
Nine months
later, Al Awda Hospital
was partially functioning.
Dr Mohammed Obeid was
still working there.
During a lull in the fighting,
he told us about the
attacks on the hospital.
Two weeks after the ward
was hit, Dr Obeid says
the Israeli Army gave the director
of the hospital an ultimatum.
Dr Al Bursh made a final
call to his family.
There is no footage
of Adnan Al Bursh being seized,
but Al Jazeera obtained these
pictures showing men
stripped to their underwear
in the vicinity of the hospital.
We don't know if there are any
medics in these pictures.
Like hospitals, medics are given
extensive protections
under international law,
regardless of their political views.
The Israeli Army said
Dr Al Bursh was arrested
on suspicion of terrorism.
They provided no evidence of this.
Dr Al Bursh praised the October 7th
attacks at the time,
and has been supportive of militant
groups in the past, like some other
doctors in this film.
Following three of the hospital
raids that we've investigated,
we found that medics were taken
to locations human rights groups
have described to us as black sites,
where there's no judicial oversight.
HE GIVES ORDERS
Footage of the sites is rare,
but this was filmed by a member
of the IDF in a football
stadium in Gaza City,
and was posted online
in December 2023.
We can't confirm if medics
are in these images,
but thousands of Palestinians have
been taken to these
sites, including medics.
We travelled to Ramallah,
in the occupied West Bank,
to meet Budour Hassan,
an Amnesty International researcher.
Now, you've been investigating
black sites in Gaza.
What are these black
sites being used for?
In these sites, the soldiers have
absolutely complete power
to abuse, to torture,
to hit, to humiliate the detainee,
without any oversight.
What can you tell me
about the detainment of Palestinian
doctors and healthcare workers?
So, if there is one characteristic
for which this war has stood out
it's the systematic targeting
of the Palestinian healthcare
sector in the Gaza Strip.
We're not talking about 10, 20, 30,
40 healthcare workers.
We're talking about
hundreds of detainees.
Israeli authorities would say that
maybe these healthcare workers know
some information about hostages,
or they knew information about Hamas
fighters being treated.
But on many occasions,
these doctors are probably
interrogated just once or twice -
and that's it.
The torture and unlawful treatment
to which healthcare workers
are subjected is evident intent
of the Israeli authorities
to destroy Palestinians.
So there is also an element
of genocidal intent.
And destroying the healthcare
sector, basically taking it out
of service through different means -
not always necessarily
by directly attacking them,
but by also detaining hundreds
of healthcare workers.
Budour says she's identified
at least four black sites so far.
So, do you think there
are other black sites that
you haven't heard about,
that you haven't been
able to identify?
I think what we were able
to identify is just a drop
in an ocean of horror.
This image of a black
site was posted online.
We've been told the four
men in the foreground
are all healthcare workers.
One of them is now in Egypt.
You are one of these men.
Which one are you?
This is who I am.
You're that one?
Yes.
VOICEOVER: Khaled Hamouda
is a specialist surgeon.
It was shocking.
I mean, this is really shocking.
Yes.
It looks apocalyptic.
And later, you said that
you were put into this pit?
It's a huge hole,
you know, very high.
A month before this picture
was taken, Dr Hamouda was working
at the Indonesian Hospital.
After it was attacked and shut down
by the Israeli Army,
he was forced to move
to Kamal Adwan Hospital,
a short walk from his home.
This is your home?
This is where I live.
OK.
Our building, it's three floors.
Yeah.
He shared the building
with his extended family,
three of whom were doctors.
He says they were the only
occupants of the building.
On December 3rd, 2023, his house
was hit by a direct air strike.
Ten of Khaled Hamouda's
family were killed.
So, can you tell us what happened
after they attacked
it, where you went?
We moved away about
30m - here, exactly.
Mm-hm.
In front of this building.
So all these buildings
were still standing and only
your building was hit?
Yes.
So you ran up the street?
Yes.
Up to another building?
We thought we were safe now,
because the air strike finished
and the building almost destroyed.
Yes.
And about ten of you sat outside
this building in the road?
Yes.
And that's when a drone strike hit?
Yes.
Khaled Hamouda was injured.
He was taken to
Kamal Adwan Hospital.
The two strikes killed 12 members
of Khaled Hamouda's family,
a family of doctors.
We asked the IDF why they targeted
Khaled Hamouda's family home.
They did not respond
to this question.
Khaled Hamouda and his surviving
family joined thousands of others
taking refuge in the grounds
of his workplace,
Kamal Adwan Hospital.
For a week, the hospital
was bombarded, before being raided
and then forcibly evacuated.
The UN says Israeli soldiers
detained over 70 medics.
Khaled was amongst them,
and was separated from his two
surviving children.
The Israeli Army said
they had detained 90
terrorists during the raids -
including the hospital
director, whom they claimed
was a Hamas operative -
and again said that the hospital
was being used as a command
and control centre.
This is Kamal Adwan Hospital.
They took us, we walk
all the street.
Yeah.
And they ask the doctors
to sit down there.
Mm-hm.
It's here where Khaled
was photographed.
Khaled says he was taken to an
adjacent building and interrogated.
After eight hours, where he says
he and others were violently beaten,
Dr Hamouda was then
transported to Israel.
The forcible transfer of prisoners
across borders is prohibited
under international law.
The IDF told us that those found not
to be involved in terrorist activity
are released as soon as possible.
Barely a week after his daughter
and wife were killed,
Dr Hamouda was in Israeli detention.
He says he was held in stress
positions, and on one occasion
forced to grip barbed wire.
Dr Hamouda has expressed support
for Hamas on social media,
including the attacks on October
7th, and mourning a relative
who was a senior Hamas commander.
After three weeks,
he was released without charge.
The IDF told us they rejected
the claims made on the use of black
sites to avoid judicial oversight,
as well as claims regarding enforced
disappearances, and that they follow
international and Israeli law.
In the occupied West Bank,
we meet academic Dr Layth Hanbali,
from the research centre
The Institute for Palestine Studies.
He's been tracking Israel's attacks
on Gaza's healthcare system,
using data collected
by the organisation
Healthcare Workers Watch.
They've documented the deaths
of 118 doctors, 65 of them
killed in their own homes.
We've heard of incidents
where doctors have been hit
while in their homes.
Are these just accidents?
So, the Israeli Army claims to use
precise strikes in order to target
identified either terrorists
or terrorist infrastructure,
and that it aims to minimise
unintended casualties.
And so, whether it's
because the Israeli Army has
deliberately chosen to assassinate
those individuals, or because it
doesn't care that it kills them
and it considers them collateral
damage, it has made a choice to kill
them, whether it's collateral damage
or whether it's assassination.
The massive loss of expertise
will take years to rebuild.
Structures can be built very
quickly, but healthcare
professionals require years
to be trained.
And so that's going to
have a massively detrimental effect
on the health of the Palestinian
population for years to come.
By January 2024, Gaza's Ministry
of Health calculated that
over 23,000 Palestinians
had been killed...
..and the UN estimated that 60%
of Gaza's homes had been
damaged or destroyed.
Only 13 out of Gaza's 36
hospitals were functioning.
With Al-Shifa shut down,
the largest medical facility
operating in Gaza was now
Nasser Hospital in the south.
Our colleague Jaber Badwan has been
meeting the families of medics
who have been killed,
detained or disappeared.
One of them is a missing surgeon
called Khaled Al Serr.
He was taken from Nasser Hospital
by the IDF in March 2024.
This is Khaled's mother, Kawther.
This is Khaled's brother, Wael.
We travelled to Egypt in September
2024 to meet a doctor who'd been
with Khaled Al Serr at Nasser
Hospital.
Ahmed Moghrabi was the only
reconstructive surgeon
left in southern Gaza.
OK.
Hello, my friend, again
from the operating room.
I have one child, two years old.
You were in Nasser
with Dr Khaled Al Serr.
Can you tell me about him?
The Israeli Army had
surrounded Nasser for weeks.
Like thousands of other
Palestinians, Dr Moghrabi
and his family were sheltering
at the hospital.
EXPLOSIONS
They are bombing.
The IDF began striking
the hospital and its vicinity
and cutting off supplies.
It's a really crime,
it's a really crime.
They attacked a very populated area.
Displaced people here
cannot cross this road.
Ahmed Moghrabi filmed people
being targeted by Israeli snipers
at the hospital gate.
It's a child.
ON VIDEO: As you see,
just dead body.
So that's the entrance of Nasser.
This is the entrance.
Right.
Dr Moghrabi captured this moment
after an armed drone shot
a nurse on his ward.
Allahu Akbar.
During this period, hospital staff
told us that at least 14 people
were killed by snipers or drones.
A mass grave was dug for them
and the many others who had died
in the hospital grounds -
just as in Al-Shifa.
The Israeli military
said Nasser Hospital
was being used to hide hostages.
A number of freed hostages say
they were held at Nasser
until they were released.
Did you ever see any hostages
being held at Nasser?
On February 15th, both
Doctors Moghrabi and Khaled Al Serr
were working when Israeli forces
shelled and then finally
raided the hospital.
Khaled Al Serr was on the ward.
Dr Moghrabi fled with his family.
Dr Moghrabi says he and his family
had to pass through an Israeli Army
checkpoint where soldiers
were searching out medical
staff, amongst others.
Dr Moghrabi believes
that he and his family
managed to escape only
because he removed his scrubs.
After days of continuous war
in Gaza, the Israeli Army invaded
the hospital by soldiers
and by tanks, bulldozers.
They displaced all the healthcare
workers and all patients
from all the buildings to be
condensed into one department.
Inside the hospital,
Dr Khaled Al Serr was filming
the patients who remained.
Israeli soldiers then
rounded people up.
Like in other hospital raids,
Palestinians are stripped and bound.
Even patients still
in their beds are zip-tied.
The IDF said that it had
arrested around 200 people,
including what it described
as terrorists who posed as medics.
According to the Ministry
of Health in Gaza, 70 medics
were detained during the raid.
The IDF withdrew, while Dr Al Serr
and the remaining staff tried
to keep the hospital running.
But weeks later, they raided again.
This time, Dr Khaled
Al Serr was taken.
According to the UN,
the attacks on the hospitals we've
investigated appear to follow
a pattern of assault
that the Israeli Army has been
replicating across Gaza.
This United Nations report,
published in December 2024,
sets out the pattern
generally being used.
First, the Army strikes hospital
buildings and surroundings.
Then it besieges the hospital with
ground troops, preventing access
and blocking medical supplies.
It raids the hospital,
often using tanks and bulldozers.
It detains medical staff,
patients and displaced people
sheltering in the hospital.
It then forces anyone
remaining to leave.
And finally, Israeli troops
withdraw, effectively rendering
the hospital non-functional.
It is a war crime to attack civilian
hospitals unless they're used
to commit acts harmful to the enemy,
but even then, any response
must be proportionate.
In response to the UN report,
Israel said, "Hamas has chosen
to methodically abuse
the protection of
medical facilities.
Hamas embeds its tunnel
system and infrastructure
within the premises."
And so Israel says their operations
are therefore "legally justifiable".
As we're gathering testimonies
from medics and their families
in Gaza about how they're
being targeted, we're
also collecting evidence
about what happens once they're
brought here to Israel.
In the occupied West Bank,
lawyer Khaled Zabarga
is representing ten detained
healthcare workers from Gaza.
His clients are being
held in Ofer Prison.
For the first seven months
of the war, Israel prevented lawyers
communicating with detainees.
Now they can apply to visit
after 90 days of detention,
but very few applications
have been approved.
We can't go in with him, but this
is footage from inside the prison.
PRISONER SCREAMS
On the anniversary
of the October 7th attacks,
Israel's Channel 13 filmed a raid
on Ofer Prison by the Israel Prison
Service, in what they said
was a search for weapons.
Later that evening,
we met with Khaled Zabarga
on his return from Ofer Prison.
He said his client showed signs
of physical and mental torture.
We put these allegations to the IDF,
and they didn't respond.
There had been no sightings
of Khaled Al Serr, the missing
surgeon from Nasser Hospital...
..until this video was posted
of a hospital administrator
called Ahmed Al Kel,
who had just been
released from prison.
Like thousands of Palestinians,
the two men had been transferred
from black sites in Gaza
to detention centres in Israel.
Khaled Al Serr had been held at
a military base called Sde Teiman.
That, in the distance,
is the Sde Teiman military facility.
We're not going to get any closer.
Now, originally, it was a military
base and vehicle warehouse,
but after the 7th October Hamas
attacks, it was quickly converted
into an interrogation site housing
hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
It's now become notorious after
reports of torture, rape and abuse.
Israel's Channel 12 broadcast
a leaked video purporting to show
a gang rape at Sde Teiman.
The victim's injuries were
so severe, he was taken to hospital
for emergency surgery.
When nine soldiers were arrested,
ultranationalist Israelis stormed
Sde Teiman demanding their release.
Five of those soldiers
were later charged with abuse.
CHANTING
Some Israeli politicians
debated whether the rape
of prisoners should be allowed.
There's been hardly any
testimony from soldiers
stationed at Sde Teiman,
but we've found one soldier willing
to talk about what he saw.
But he says he can only
do this anonymously
because he feels under threat.
Even before going there,
I had heard rumours of what...
..you know, what was done
to detainees there, with either
people bragging about physically
abusing them or sort
of joking about it.
They would say, like,
to me that I would have
to physically abuse detainees.
Can you tell me about
the detainees who were doctors
or healthcare workers?
There were a lot of detainees that
were known to be detained
from the hospitals in Gaza.
And the main reason, I was told,
that they were detained
is that they possibly witnessed
hostages either being transported
to places or being given care
in hospitals in Gaza.
Did you ever witness
detainees being abused?
Yeah.
Soldiers that were enthusiastic
to get their hands on detainees.
What do you mean by that?
Even among commanders,
one of the incidents in which, like,
one of the soldiers which had beaten
a detainee, he wouldn't shut up
about it, and I recall
the commander being in on it
and showing his respect for that.
From what you're saying,
it sounds like this behaviour
wasn't just tolerated,
it was encouraged.
Yeah, yeah.
In those sort of circles,
people that guard the detainees sort
of view themselves as fighters
or something, and I think
this whole experience
was still viewed as pretty just.
What do you think about that now?
I mean, it was shocking.
I'm deeply ashamed.
CHILDREN CHATTER
Our producer,
Jaber Badwan, interviewed several
medics who'd been held
at Sde Teiman, then
released back into Gaza.
Walid Khalili is a paramedic.
This is him at Al-Shifa
hospital in 2023.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society
says 27 of their paramedics have
been killed while on duty
since October 2023.
34 of their ambulances have been
taken out of service
due to Israeli attacks.
Walid Khalili was arrested
while on a rescue mission
and taken to Sde Teiman,
and later transferred
to another prison.
Dr Saeed Marouf is a paediatrician.
He's back treating Gaza's
wounded and malnourished
children at Nasser Hospital,
now partially functioning.
According to the United Nations,
much of Gaza has been on the brink
of famine because of Israel's severe
restrictions on aid.
Dr Marouf was detained for 45 days,
mostly at Sde Teiman.
General Surgeon Issam Abu Ajwa
and his whole team were taken
from the operating theatre
in Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
He makes shocking allegations
about his 137 days in Sde Teiman.
Dr Abu Ajwa makes a shocking
allegation that others have told us
- that some Israeli medics refuse
to treat Palestinian prisoners
and even physically abuse them.
We spoke to Israeli medics
who confirmed that some doctors had
mistreated Palestinian detainees,
but they were all too scared to go
on camera for fear of retribution.
Finally, one doctor who'd been
stationed at Sde Teiman's field
hospital, among others,
agreed to meet on
condition of anonymity.
I remember at least one case
where a very painful procedure
was being done and the patient
got no consent.
Things were not explained
to him in his language,
so he didn't know what was going on.
And, to the best of my knowledge,
no painkillers were administered
to him around that procedure.
And I was there.
I saw that happening,
and I saw him screaming,
and I saw no-one stopping it.
And why do you think
this was happening?
Why weren't they using
anaesthetic on this patient?
Well, I think that was retribution.
Like, that was a way
to inflict pain.
So the scary part is how
I could not recognise that.
When I saw that, and I recognise how
I have normalised the fact that even
those patients are defined
and are called just
by a five-digit number.
They don't have a name,
they don't move.
They are blindfolded, so you do not
look at them in the eyes.
So you're taking a lot
of the humanity and the empathy that
you might feel away.
So there is no doubt that,
in many ways, I am an accomplice,
as well as an Israeli physician,
to how we have been treating Gazans.
Were you given any guidelines,
or were you briefed
about the parameters
within which you could work?
The only guidelines that we see
is about, like, keeping
ourselves anonymous.
Just because they wouldn't
want their names coming out to,
let's say, foreign countries
and foreign journalists just
because they might be liable,
potentially, of war crimes.
What happens if you speak out?
Well, I might be
viewed as a traitor.
So in this atmosphere,
where people are scared to speak
out, do you think this
is causing a cover-up?
I don't even think that
in the Israeli society, there
is a need for a cover-up these days.
You can do almost whatever you want
when it comes to Gazans.
Honestly, I think that's how
the Israeli society has been
dehumanising Palestinians for years.
It didn't start on October 7th.
It's nothing new.
The IDF and the Israel Prison
Service did not respond
to the allegation that Israeli
doctors mistreated detainees.
But the IDF said detainees can
request medical care.
Dr Khaled Hamouda had also been
detained at Sde Teiman.
His detention had coincided
with another doctor -
the surgeon from Al-Shifa Hospital,
Adnan Al Bursh.
What was Adnan's state of mind like?
Did he look healthy to you?
In mid-April, Dr Adnan Al Bursh
was transferred to Ofer Prison.
He died on the day of his arrival.
What did you think when you heard
Adnan had died in prison?
Testimony from other prisoners
provided to an Israeli human rights
group describes prison guards
beating Dr Al Bursh and throwing him
to the ground before his death.
The Israel Prison Service says
it is not aware of any
of the claims made in this film,
and the IDF says they act
in accordance with international
law, and the abuse of detainees
is strictly prohibited.
Israeli documents show that
65 Palestinians have died
in its detention since October 2023.
Along with Adnan Al Bursh,
there are at least three other
healthcare workers -
Dr Iyad al-Rantisi,
head of obstetrics at
Kamal Adwan Hospital,
Dr Ziad Al-Dalou from
Al-Shifa Hospital,
and paramedic Hamdan Abu Anaba.
In October 2024, Israeli forces
launched another ground
invasion of northern Gaza.
They issued evacuation orders
to the remaining 400,000
Palestinians and cut
all aid reaching them.
Once again, Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda,
and the Indonesian Hospitals came
under attack, and the UN
Secretary-General warned
the world it needed to act
to prevent ethnic cleansing.
But the plan to clear
northern Gaza was delayed.
The director of Kamal Adwan
Hospital, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya,
was one of several doctors refusing
to leave his patients.
Here he is standing next
to Dr Mohammed Obeid.
Allahu Akbar.
In late October, following another
raid, an Israeli drone strike
killed his son, Ibrahim.
The next day, he spoke
to Al Jazeera.
After more than two
months under attack,
and with the hospital in flames,
it was forced to finally close.
Israel says it detained over
200 militants in the area,
but the hospital says Israel
detained many healthcare workers,
like Dr Abu Safiya.
This is the last time he was seen
in Gaza by his colleagues,
walking towards an Israeli tank.
Dr Abu Safiya was taken
to Sde Teiman, and is now
being held in Ofer Prison.
Israel accuses him of
having a rank in Hamas.
In March 2025, an Israeli
court classified him
as an unlawful combatant,
and ordered his continued
imprisonment without
charge or trial.
His lawyer says he's not a terrorist
and that he's been held
in solitary confinement,
shown signs of torture,
and denied proper medical care.
Having worked through four
separate hospital sieges,
Dr Mohammed Obeid was taken
by Israeli soldiers
on October 26th, 2024.
He is still being held.
Over a year after his death,
the body of Adnan Al Bursh has not
been returned to his family in Gaza.
After more than six months
in detention, Dr Khaled Al Serr,
the surgeon who stayed
on at Nasser Hospital
through the worst,
returned to his family.
Like all of those doctors we've
spoken to detained by Israel,
he was released without charge.
And like all of those doctors,
Khaled Al Serr says he was tortured.
Dr Al Serr was released a year
after the war began.
A war in which over 1,500 healthcare
workers have reportedly been killed,
including at least 50
highly qualified specialists.
A war in which Gaza's healthcare
system has been destroyed.
In May 2025, the IDF struck
the European Hospital,
saying it killed Hamas military
chief Mohammed Sinwar.
In June, it issued an edited video
it said showed a tunnel under
the hospital where Sinwar and other
militants died, and gave a media
tour to some journalists.
Also in May, Israeli government
minister Bezalel Smotrich
vowed to destroy Gaza.