After the Israeli aggression escalated amid relentless bombardment that destroyed houses over their residents’ heads and inflicted a large number of casualties, my son Diaa’ and I were no longer able to stay in our house, so we decided to seek refuge in the Hospital where I work. This was in mid-November 2023 when Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) besieged Kamal ‘Adwan Hospital and the situation there got worse amid only few medical staff remained on duty and fear and anxiety prevailing among the medical staff, patients, the wounded and their companions, and the displaced. Moreover, it had become extremely difficult to access medicines, medical supplies, food, and water.

In light of those dire circumstances, the medical staff at the pediatrics department were treating a large number of children infected with Intestinal infectious diseases, pneumonia and meningitis given the chronic shortage of medicine and medical supplies.

I was also an eyewitness to the Israeli bombardment on the hospital’s pediatric inpatient department, killing a child and wounding his mother and another bombing that targeted the hospital’s western gate and destroyed several cars in addition to a third one targeting the hospital’s northern gate, killing 4 to 6 persons inside a car not to mention the scattering shrapnel that was hitting the hospital buildings’ roofs.

Since arriving at the Anglican Hospital and for 3 weeks, I had treated a large number of children with Intestinal infectious diseases, bowel obstruction, pneumonia, meningitis and blood diseases.

One day, we received a very challenging and complicated case, a 7-month pregnant woman with a gunshot head wound arrived at the hospital according to her husband. I have been called to the emergency department along with a gynecologist and a neurologist to handle the case. We were bewildered and not knowing how to treat her. I then suggested to the gynecologist to perform a c-section to save the baby, but unfortunately the neurologist could not save the women’s life and she succumbed to her critical injury. After that, I took the baby, and she was a baby girl, to the operating room and broke the operating rooms protocol, as doctors were performing an orthopedic surgery on a wounded there. I did that because the operating room was equipped with respirators, aspirators, heart rate monitors, and other devices, allowing me to deal with the baby. After 2 hours, the baby’s condition was stable and as there was no Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the hospital, we had to give the baby girl to her father but she in a good condition.

While I was at the hospital, we received large number of injuries and doctors had to prioritize treatment of cases most likely to survive, leaving many with severe life-threatening injuries untreated or later treated. We had many difficult and frustrating moments at the hospital, where there were about 200 sick and wounded persons in need of surgeries along with the companions and displaced people.

The trucks drove us for about an hour and then dropped us in an unknown place with an uneven floor full of holes and gravel. Most of the detainees were interrogated by the Israeli investigators, beaten and insulted. I was then loaded along with other detainees into another truck. At that moment, I got separated from my son, Diaa’, as the truck drove us to an unknown place, where we were beaten and insulted again. Many detainees and I were then transferred via buses to an unknown detention facility, where soldiers gave me a gray pajama that I had been wearing throughout my detention for 45 consecutive days. I met there a Palestinian doctor, who was detained as well but appointed by the detention facility to take care of the other detainees. He gave me a mattress, a blanket, and a small meal for dinner as it was late at night.

In the other section that I was transferred to, the soldiers allowed us to perform prayers, but they banned ablution (Wudu), although we were allowed to use the bathroom. We had to perform tayammum (use sand instead of water for ablution) and then pray. In each of the 2 sections, there were about 100 detainees. Meanwhile, I was sent to Section 3 where there were about 70 detainees, and the soldiers allowed us to perform ablution and pray.

On Thursday morning, 01 February 2024, I was released after 45 days in detention. During the last days in detention right before being released, I was extremely exhausted and lost a lot of weight. And as my health was getting worse, I was transported along with 5 other sick detainees in an ambulance from the detention facility to the Kerem Shalom crossing in Rafah. Moreover, about 114 other detainees, including the doctor who was arrested with me from the Anglican Hospital, were released on the same day.

However, I still do not know the fate of my siblings, wife and children while I got back to work at the pediatrics department in Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, as we, doctors, have a humanitarian duty to do.