War on Gaza: Palestinian health workers are the real heroes

Since October 7, Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian health workers and detained others in inhumane conditions. The ongoing attacks on doctors, nurses, paramedics and aid workers, as well as the destruction of health infrastructure in Gaza, are central components of the ongoing genocide.

During this time, we witnessed the courage and resilience of medical teams in the Gaza Strip, who showed remarkable resourcefulness in caring for their patients even as the region’s hospitals were destroyed by Israeli attacks.

The commitment and resilience of health workers is aptly described as a form of resistance. Their tireless efforts under extremely difficult conditions, including shortages of essential food and medicine, deserve recognition.

Many have received harrowing reports of family members killed or injured in Israeli airstrikes, but this does not stop them from fulfilling their professional and moral obligations.

This persistence has been instrumental in enabling certain medical facilities to continue operating despite Israel’s relentless attacks.

Some hospitals hit by the airstrikes have resumed limited operations despite significant damage. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, several operating rooms were restored at al-Shifa Hospital in January. But just two months later, Israel stormed the facility again, putting it “out of action forever,” according to the acting chairman.

In a December raid on the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, the Israeli army reportedly used bulldozers to dig up bodies recently buried in makeshift cemeteries in the facility’s courtyard and arrested the hospital’s director. Despite enormous hardships, the hospital was able to continue partially operating until last May, when Israel again bombed and besieged the hospital and suspended operations.

Tireless commitment

The Indonesian hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip, which had been badly damaged and rendered inoperable by Israel’s bombing and siege, resumed operations in May amid joyful celebrations by medical staff.

Among those celebrating was Munir al-Bursh, the director general of the Palestinian Health Ministry, who lost his daughter and suffered a back injury in an Israeli airstrike in Jabalia. Despite being transferred from one hospital to another, Bursh continued to work tirelessly to help injured Palestinians, even as those facilities were gradually attacked and closed.

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This unwavering commitment is inextricably linked to political factors. Gaza’s health care providers are committed not only to their professional ethics and to caring for their patients, but also to saving the people of Gaza.

As surgeon Ghassan Abu Sittah explained in an interview with Al Jazeera, those responsible for the health system in the Gaza Strip made a “national decision” not to evacuate the hospitals, as this would have amounted to participation in the crime of ethnic cleansing.

The targeted attack on health workers endangers the general well-being and survival of the population of the Gaza Strip.

Many health professionals have shared these views. Adnan al-Bursh, a prominent Palestinian orthopedic surgeon who died in an Israeli prison in April, gave many emotional statements outlining his colleagues’ steadfastness in the face of Israeli destruction.

In his last post on X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: “We die standing and will not kneel.” On October 29, when al-Shifa Hospital was under siege, he posted: “Stand firm. We will not go except to heaven or to our homes with dignity.” Later told Al Jazeera: “We left the hospital with a heavy heart, but fortunately we accomplished our mission.”

In February, Munir al-Bursh posted on X: “We will not abandon the field of honor, despite the famine and genocide of our steadfast people.”

“We will rebuild”

Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of al-Shifa Hospital, was recently released from Israeli prison after seven months in detention. Israeli forces arrested him last November when they broke into a UN humanitarian convoy transporting wounded patients from the hospital.

After his release, Abu Salmiya posted on social media: “We were arrested in al-Shifa Hospital and we will return there. We will rebuild it from scratch and with God’s will it will serve our people even better.”

Abu Salmiya also spoke about the dire situation of Palestinian prisoners and the crimes committed against them by the Israeli authorities. Many of his colleagues are still in prison and are forced to endure harsh and inhumane conditions.

In Gaza, the hospital was our last refuge. Then Israel bombed it

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Shortly after his release, Abu Salmiya returned to Nasser Hospital to alleviate suffering and support what remains of the health system in Gaza. His release came as a relief to many, especially after the tragic deaths of Adnan al-Bursh and another doctor, Iyad al-Rantisi, in Israeli custody. There have also been numerous reports of torture and inhumane treatment in Israeli detention centers.

Over the past nine months, we have heard countless testimonies from health workers, including hospital directors, expressing their refusal to evacuate hospitals and abandon their patients. Unfortunately, their appeals to the global medical community have been in vain.

Their appeals to the Israeli army to avoid evacuations that would endanger patient safety were also ignored.

The targeted attacks on health workers threaten the general well-being and survival of the Gaza population. Israel’s evacuation orders for hospitals in the besieged enclave were strategically designed to create a pervasive sense of insecurity among the thousands seeking refuge in these medical facilities.

This calculated action, coupled with the deliberate destruction of vital health infrastructure, has undermined the sanctity and security of places that should be protected under international standards.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.