Brett Lewis on the death of Dr. Hammam Alloh in Gaza

On October 31, Dr. Hammam Alloh was the last nephrologist at Al-Shifa Hospital and the last nephrologist in Gaza.  When asked by a journalist why he wouldn’t evacuate south with his wife and two children despite heavy bombing and the encroaching Israeli army, he didn’t hesitate.  “And if I go, who treats our patients?  We are not animals.  We have the right to receive proper health care.  You think I went to medical school and my postgraduate degrees for a total of 14 years so I think only about my life and not my patients? … Do you think this is the reason I went to medical school, to only think about my life?”

Two weeks later, Dr. Alloh was killed alongside several members of his extended family in an Israeli airstrike.

Close your eyes and imagine working long hours in the hospital, without the proper equipment to care for scores of injured patients crowding the hospital hallways.  Imagine doing so knowing that you are facing certain death, knowing that you will be forced to leave your family behind.  Imagine the fear and grief and rage and helplessness you would feel, that Dr. Alloh and his colleagues must have felt.  And then remember that in the face of fear, Dr. Alloh chose to stay with his patients.  He died because he refused to believe that his life was somehow worth more than theirs.  He rejected any reference to the idea that Palestinian lives are somehow disposable, that Palestinians are “animals,” that civilian casualties are “the price of waging war.”  By standing by his patients, at the cost of his own life, he stood up for their humanity– something the rest of the world has largely failed to do. 

~ Brett Lewis, "Doctors in the U.S. Can’t Be Silent in the Face of What’s Happening in Gaza," TIME Ideas, November 20, 2023