Gaza Herald _Nearly two years after he was detained by Israeli forces, Palestinian vascular surgeon Dr. Hassan Khalil Almukayed remains imprisoned without charge, separated from his family and unaware that his father has died. His case is one of several involving Gaza’s medical professionals, many of whom have remained in Israeli detention since the war, prompting growing concern from human rights organizations and international bodies.
Almukayed is among at least 15 Palestinian doctors from Gaza currently being held by Israel, according to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI). The group says most are detained under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows for prolonged detention without formal charges or trial.
Trapped Inside Kamal Adwan Hospital
The last time Nadia Almukayed saw her husband was inside Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, where he had chosen to remain despite the escalating Israeli military offensive.
By October 2024, fighting had intensified around the hospital, leaving Hassan, his family, and other relatives trapped inside the facility where he worked as a vascular surgeon.
“We couldn’t evacuate northern Gaza in time,” Nadia told Al Jazeera. “We kept moving from one place to another until we ended up trapped inside Kamal Adwan Hospital.”
Despite the worsening conditions, she said Hassan refused to abandon his patients.
“From the first day of the war until he was taken away, he never stopped treating the wounded and the sick.”
According to Nadia, he returned home only briefly once a week to check on his wife and three children before heading back to the hospital.
The Last Goodbye
When Israeli forces entered Kamal Adwan Hospital in late October 2024, families sheltering inside were ordered to evacuate south on foot.
Nadia said Israeli soldiers assured the hospital’s doctors they would not be arrested if they returned to continue their medical work.
She said those assurances proved false.
As she prepared to leave with their children—13-year-old Muhammad, 11-year-old Malak, and eight-year-old Hala—she tearfully said goodbye to her husband.
“We both know what’s going to happen, but we have to trust in God’s will and remain patient.”
According to Nadia, Hassan simply replied, “God willing.”
She remained in contact with him by phone until the following night, when all communication abruptly ended.
“The moment I lost contact with him, I knew he had been detained.”
PHRI says Hassan was arrested on October 25, 2024. He was later held at the Sde Teiman detention facility before being transferred to Ktziot (Negev) Prison, where many detained Palestinian medical workers are currently imprisoned.
A Family Left Waiting
Hassan’s brother, Mahmoud, a nurse at Kamal Adwan Hospital, was detained alongside him.
The family’s first indication of what had happened came through a photograph circulating online that appeared to show Mahmoud, stripped to his underwear, being loaded onto an Israeli military vehicle.
Mahmoud was released during the October 2025 prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel, but Hassan remained in custody.
Now approaching two years in detention without formal charges, Hassan still does not know that his father died while he was imprisoned.
Calls for His Release
Almukayed’s detention has drawn renewed attention alongside that of Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, who Israel has also held without charge.
Last week, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory called for Abu Safia’s immediate release. Human rights organizations and his legal team say he has reportedly endured severe abuse and torture while in detention and warn that his health remains at serious risk.
Both Abu Safia and Almukayed were among the doctors who chose to remain at Kamal Adwan Hospital to care for critically ill patients, including newborn infants, after Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza.
Their cases have become emblematic of the growing concerns surrounding the detention of Palestinian healthcare workers during the war, with rights groups continuing to call for due process, independent oversight, and the release of medical personnel held without charge.
Unaware of Their Father’s Death
Nearly two years after their detention, Hassan Almukayed and his brother Mahmoud still do not know that their father, Khalil Almukayed, has died.
Khalil, who was in his seventies, was also trapped inside Kamal Adwan Hospital with his sons when Israeli forces entered the facility. For several days, the family had no information about his whereabouts and feared he had also been detained.
It was only after relatives shared appeals on social media about his disappearance that they learned he had been released following a brief period in Israeli custody.
According to family members, Khalil returned in severely deteriorated physical and psychological condition. They said Israeli soldiers confiscated his medication during his detention and gave him a water bottle that had been punctured, leaving him without adequate access to water.
His grandson, Nemer Shaheen, told Al Jazeera that Khalil was released in “very poor mental and psychological condition.”
Just a few months later, Khalil died. His family believes the emotional toll of his sons’ imprisonment contributed to his death.
Despite the family’s loss, Hassan remains unaware that his father has died.
In the few messages she has been able to send through her husband’s lawyer, Nadia Almukayed said she has deliberately withheld the news.
“I haven’t told him about his father’s death because I’m afraid of how it would affect him,” she said.
‘The Doctor’ of Jabalia
In Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, where Dr. Hassan Almukayed was born in 1972, residents rarely used his full name. To neighbors and patients alike, he was simply known as “the doctor”—a physician whose commitment to caring for others extended far beyond the walls of the hospital.
The eldest of his siblings, Hassan shared a particularly close bond with his parents. His wife, Nadia, said he was the center of their lives.
“To them, he was the very air they breathed,” she told Al Jazeera.
After studying medicine in Romania and spending several years practicing in Sweden, Hassan returned to Gaza in 2010. His decision, according to his family, was driven by a desire to care for his aging parents and build his future in the Jabalia camp where he grew up.
Alongside his work as a vascular surgeon, he opened a small clinic inside his home, where he regularly treated patients who could not afford medical care.
“When people needed a doctor, they would simply knock on his door,” said his nephew, Nemer Shaheen, who was evacuated from Gaza during the war and now lives in Germany while pursuing a doctoral degree. “He never charged those who couldn’t pay.”
Nadia said her husband never turned away anyone seeking help, regardless of the hour.
“If someone came in the middle of the night asking for Dr. Hassan, he would get up, open the clinic, and treat them.”
She described him as a man devoted to serving his community without expecting anything in return.
“He helped everyone,” she said. “There was no hatred in his heart.”
When the war effectively split Gaza in two, Dr. Hassan Almukayed became one of only two vascular surgeons still working in the besieged northern part of the Strip. Despite the escalating danger and worsening humanitarian conditions, his family said he refused to leave, choosing instead to continue treating patients.
“He honored his medical oath to the fullest,” his nephew, Nemer Shaheen, told Al Jazeera. “That’s why he stayed.”
After his car was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, Hassan reportedly began traveling to Kamal Adwan Hospital by donkey cart so he could continue caring for the wounded.
Away from the hospital, his wife remembers him as a devoted husband whose quiet compassion shaped everyday family life.
“He was a rare husband—kind, gentle, and caring,” Nadia said.
She said his absence is felt in every part of her daily routine.
“I miss him in everything I do, even the smallest moments, like drinking coffee or watching short videos on my phone.”
Nadia also recalled the respect her husband commanded within their community in Jabalia refugee camp, where neighbors affectionately referred to him simply as “the doctor.”
“Whenever people called out for ‘the doctor,’ I felt proud walking beside him,” she said.
‘They Are All Being Starved’
Naji Abbas of Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI) said the events at Kamal Adwan Hospital reflected what he described as a broader Israeli campaign targeting Gaza’s healthcare system and its medical workforce.
According to Abbas, Israeli military raids on hospitals were routinely followed by the detention of medical personnel.
“Every time the Israeli army raided a healthcare facility, dozens of staff members were arrested,” he said.
PHRI estimates that more than 350 Palestinian healthcare workers have been detained since the start of the war.
Abbas also warned that Palestinian medical workers held in Israeli custody are facing severe hardship.
“All of them are being starved,” he said, describing what he characterized as the conditions facing detained healthcare professionals.
Abbas said the detention of doctors and other medical personnel severely undermined healthcare services in northern Gaza, arguing that their removal left hospitals unable to meet the needs of the population and contributed to the displacement of civilians toward the southern part of the Strip.
“Their removal left the community in northern Gaza without healthcare services,” he said, adding that the loss of medical staff also forced many residents to seek safety and treatment elsewhere.
According to Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI), approximately 55 Palestinian healthcare workers remain in Israeli detention, including at least 15 senior physicians.
The organization is representing 14 of those detainees—including Dr. Hassan Almukayed and Dr. Hussam Abu Safia—in a petition before the Israeli Supreme Court seeking their release.
