Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, director of Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, has been released by Israeli forces after 665 days of illegal imprisonment. He was originally kidnapped from the hospital floor in December 2023, as Israel unleashed its systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system, killing and imprisoning hundreds of health workers.
“Israel directly targeted medical staff, as if they were the biggest enemy of the Zionist entity, with their white coats, serving the people of Gaza,” Dr. Muhanna said upon returning to the hospital. “They tried to capture all the functioning institutions, but I will say this once more: never! You will never get control of them. We will never leave the hospitals.”
Read more: Israeli destruction of Gaza’s healthcare is a blueprint for future imperialist wars
Dr. Muhanna was released with a number of healthcare workers – nurses, doctors, and paramedics – during the first phase of the captives for prisoners exchange agreement. “While their release is warmly welcomed, there are at least 115 more Gazan healthcare workers who are still being held in Israeli detention,” Healthcare Workers Watch wrote on October 13.
“Israel’s systematic abduction of healthcare workers is a war crime which has decimated the hospital workforce in Gaza,” said the network’s co-founder Dr. Muath Alser. “Unlawfully holding highly trained medical professionals in detention has directly deprived Palestinians of medical care and terrorized the hospital staff left behind. Israel must immediately and unconditionally release all the detained healthcare workers including the bodies of those tortured to death in detention.”
At least five medics – including surgeon Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh – have been tortured to death while imprisoned during the genocide, Healthcare Workers Watch notes. Others, such as pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, have been excluded from lists of political prisoners scheduled for release, despite deteriorating health and their importance for keeping health services running.
Read more: The accursed fate of Palestinians in Israeli prisons
Dr. Muhanna himself described the conditions endured by Palestinian health workers and other prisoners in Israeli jails. “We were isolated and deceived,” he said. “There was no news at all. The intelligence services spread false information only to demoralize us. There were harsh interrogations, and we were kept entirely in the dark. So our message to detainees still imprisoned must be to continue our humanitarian and health mission for our people, especially in the northern and central Gaza Strip.”
Health workers and patients gathered to meet Dr. Muhanna near Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza upon his release. Source: Awda Health and Community Association/Facebook
Upon his release, Dr. Muhanna reaffirmed his determination to rebuild Gaza’s health services together with his colleagues. Palestinian and international right to health organizations have expressed the commitment to ensure that such reconstruction is steered by Palestinians themselves. “Political sovereignty is recognized as indivisible from health sovereignty,” states the Gaza Health Solidarity Declaration, signed by Awda, the People’s Health Movement (PHM), Viva Salud, and others. For Palestinians, it continues, this means liberation from settler colonialism, occupation, and imprisonment, as well as the full realization of the right of return, restitution, and reparations.
The role of Palestinian health workers like Dr. Muhanna and of community-based organizations providing care is central to this vision. These organizations, the declaration emphasizes, “have long provided healthcare services to their communities” and must be able to set the course for future health programs across Palestine.
“We state clearly our conviction that Palestinians can and will rebuild the health system in Gaza,” the declaration concludes, “while deepening a shared commitment to health equity and health justice throughout Palestine.”
People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch*. For more articles and subscription to People’s Health Dispatch, click* here.
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