Waiting for Hassan: Another Gaza doctor held by Israel without charge

The last time Nadia Almukayed saw her husband, Dr Hassan Khalil Almukayed, was inside the Gaza hospital he had refused to leave.

By October 2024, Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian enclave had closed in on the Almukayed family, including his father and other relatives.
As Israeli forces intensified their assault on northern Gaza, the family found itself trapped inside the region’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, where Hassan worked as a vascular surgeon.

“We could not evacuate northern Gaza quickly,” Nadia told Al Jazeera. “We moved from one place to another in the north until we became trapped inside Kamal Adwan Hospital.”
Hassan Almukayed is one of at least 15 Palestinian doctors from Gaza currently in Israeli detention, the most prominent being Kamal Adwan Hospital’s director, Hussam Abu Safia.

Last week, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry ⁠on the Occupied Palestinian Territory called for an immediate release of Abu Safia, who has been held without charge in an Israeli prison for more than 18 months.

Rights groups and Abu ⁠Safia’s lawyer say there are credible reports he has faced “continued and severe abuse”, including severe torture, and that his life is in imminent danger.

Abu Safia and Almukayed were among the Palestinian doctors who refused to leave dozens of newborn infants they were ‌treating ‌after the Israeli military ordered a forced evacuation of northern Gaza.