WitnessAugust 2026

Seven Doctors. Still Detained. Still Waiting.

They stayed when they could have left. They operated by torchlight, under bombardment, without supplies. Then they were taken — from the hospitals they refused to abandon. These are their names.

Since October 2023, Israeli forces have detained hundreds of Palestinian medical workers from hospitals across Gaza. Doctors, nurses, and administrators have been pulled from operating rooms, wards, and corridors — many held without charge, without access to lawyers, without word to their families.

The seven doctors below were detained at the hospitals they chose to stay in when everyone around them was fleeing. Some have been held for over two years. Their families have received no official information about their condition or whereabouts.

We publish their names and faces because forgetting is also a form of complicity. Naming them is the least we can do.

"Medicine is not a weapon. Hospitals are not military targets. Doctors are not combatants."

WHO, repeated calls to all parties to the conflict in Gaza

Dr. Iyad Al-Rantisi

د. إياد الرنتيسي

Dr. Iyad Al-Rantisi

Physician

Gaza
Detained by Israeli forces
Dr. Nahad Abu Tai
817+ days

د. نهاد أبو طاي

Dr. Nahad Abu Tai

Surgery

Nasser Medical Complex
Over 817 days in Israeli detention
Dr. Mahmoud Hallak
817+ days

د. محمود حلاق

Dr. Mahmoud Hallak

Intensive Care Physician

Nasser Medical Complex
Over 817 days in Israeli detention
Dr. Muhammad Abu Ubeid

د. محمد أبو عبيد

Dr. Muhammad Abu Ubeid

Physician

Gaza
Detained by Israeli forces
Dr. Ahmad Musa

د. أحمد موسى

Dr. Ahmad Musa

General Surgeon

Nasser Medical Complex
Detained by Israeli forces
Dr. Madhat Abu Tabanja

د. مدحت أبو طبنجة

Dr. Madhat Abu Tabanja

Head of Intensive Care

Indonesian Hospital
Detained by Israeli forces
Dr. Hassan Al-Moqayed

د. حسن المقيد

Dr. Hassan Al-Moqayed

Vascular Surgeon

Kamal Adwan Hospital
23 November 2024

What you can do

Share this post. Say their names. Write to your elected representative and ask what diplomatic pressure is being applied to secure their release. Donate to Médecins Sans Frontières, the Palestinian Red Crescent, or any of the medical relief organisations operating in Gaza.

And if someone asks you why a diaspora platform is writing about detained doctors, tell them: because diaspora is not distance. It is the wound that does not close. These doctors are our people. Their names belong in our memory.

In memory and in solidarity

د. إياد الرنتيسي

د. نهاد أبو طاي

د. محمود حلاق

د. محمد أبو عبيد

د. أحمد موسى

د. مدحت أبو طبنجة

د. حسن المقيد