Gaza Herald _The Director General of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Dr. Munir Al-Barsh, announced that more than 170 healthcare professionals have graduated from the Palestinian Board Program in the Gaza Strip despite an ongoing war that has lasted for more than 27 months. He described the achievement as a rare moment of hope amid widespread destruction, siege, and relentless Israeli bombardment.
The graduation ceremony was held in the courtyard of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, where more than 400 healthcare workers have been killed during the war. The choice of location carried a powerful symbolic message: that Palestinians will and resilience endure even in the face of Israel’s war machine. Al-Barsh said the decision not to suspend the Palestinian Board Program during what he described as a genocidal war was a wise and deliberate one by the Ministry of Health.
He explained that the graduating doctors were studying and training while simultaneously saving lives under fire, calling their experience unprecedented in the history of modern medical education. According to Al-Barsh, no other generation of doctors has been forced to learn medicine under such extreme and life-threatening conditions, making their achievement deserving of the highest respect.
Al-Barsh emphasized that the Ministry of Health sought to send a clear message: the most precious asset Palestine possesses is the Palestinian human being, and above all, the Palestinian doctor. He added that holding the ceremony at Al-Shifa was not incidental, but intentional, describing the hospital as the site of “one of the greatest crimes on earth in this century,” after Israeli forces destroyed it.
Honoring the Martyred Doctors
In a parallel act of remembrance, the Ministry of Health honored doctors who were killed while studying and working during the war. More than 13 doctors were martyred while enrolled in the Palestinian Board Program. All were commemorated during the ceremony, alongside their families and the professors who taught them, many of whom were also killed.
Among the martyred professors honored were Dr. Omar Farwana, Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, and Dr. Adnan Al-Barsh. All had been training the next generation of Palestinian doctors before they themselves were killed. Their loss, officials said, represents not only a human tragedy but a deliberate assault on Gaza’s healthcare system and intellectual future.
A Message to the World
Addressing the international community, Al-Barsh said the world continues to view Gaza from a distance and must relearn the meaning of humanity. He argued that Gaza, through its suffering and steadfastness, is slowly teaching humanity to a world remains silent in the face of visible truth and ongoing massacres.
He warned that continued silence over the atrocities in Gaza risks stripping the world of its humanity altogether. Al-Barsh called for a moral awakening, urging the international community to look at Gaza with eyes open to reality, a territory being destroyed, bombarded, besieged, and deliberately deprived of food and medicine.
He strongly criticized the silence of the international community as Israel intensifies its aggression and seeks to prevent the world from witnessing the truth on the ground.
The graduation of more than 170 doctors amid war, alongside the commemoration of those who were killed while healing others, stands as a powerful indictment of Israel’s assault on Gaza and a testament to Palestinian resilience. In a place where hospitals are bombed and medical workers targeted, Gaza continues to produce life, knowledge, and resistance. The message from Al-Shifa is unmistakable: even under siege and annihilation, Palestine refuses to surrender its humanity, its doctors, or its future.
