The War Crime You’re Not Supposed to See

Right, so Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, for so long a situation where we’ve become used to mainstream media outlets spinning yarns so that even the lies end up being sanitised, but social media opened our eyes beyond their bias, because this genocide has been the first one broadcast in real time completely uncensored. For some outlets some truths remain too raw to broadcast—until now. Last night Channel 4 broadcast the documentary the BBC was too afraid to, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, which pulled the curtain back on life as a medic in Gaza, but also one particular aspect of that, one of Israel’s most grotesque wartime obsessions: the criminalisation, incarceration, and killing of Gaza’s medics. Forget the Geneva Conventions—when Palestinian doctors trade stethoscopes for stretchers under fire, they’re rewarded not with medals but with blindfolds, beatings, and body bags. This is not a war on Hamas. It is a war on hope, on health, and on those who still dare to care, where even doctors get labelled terrorists and the media keeps on turning a blind eye.
Right, so last night Channel 4 aired the BBC suppressed documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, finally lifting the veil on one of the most chilling and underreported aspects of Israel’s war on Gaza in how medics possibly cope with war all around them, supplies running low and morale even lower, but on top of that it also drew on the deliberate, systemic targeting and imprisonment of Palestinian medical workers. Through graphic footage, clinical testimony, and survivor accounts, the documentary exposed an appalling reality: Israel has not only bombed hospitals and clinics with impunity but has also arrested, tortured, and in some cases killed the very doctors and medics trying to save lives amid the rubble.
Since October 2023, Israel’s campaign against Gaza has resulted in the destruction or disabling of more than 70% of its hospitals, including major institutions like Al-Shifa, Kamal Adwan, and the Indonesian Hospital. Airstrikes, ground raids, drone attacks, and sieges have transformed hospitals into graveyards. Ambulances have been bombed. Water systems, power supplies, and even solar panels meant to sustain ICU equipment have been deliberately targeted. Genocide aimed at medics is a deliberate strategy of obliteration: no more healers, no more healing.
Yesterday, the situation worsened further, the latest example of this when Israeli forces killed Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, along with several members of his family. The attack took place mere hours before the airing of the Channel 4 documentary. Dr. Al-Sultan’s death is just the latest devastating blow to Gaza’s crumbling health infrastructure. It underscores that even high-profile medical professionals are not safe from Israel’s brutal campaign, they do not care, they act with impunity, they excuse their every action and the world just keeps on watching. His assassination joins a growing list of targeted killings of medical leaders, further evidence that Israel is not simply destroying buildings, but dismantling the entire foundation of Palestinian healthcare in Gaza.
Gaza’s health infrastructure was already fragile due to a 16-year blockade before October 7th and what Israel has done since. Now, with over 1,500 medical workers reportedly killed and hundreds more detained or disappeared, the system is very much collapsing. Doctors can no longer perform surgeries; children die from infections that would otherwise have been easily treatable, malnutrition, and dehydration. Trauma victims bleed out untreated. This is not just a military campaign; it is a war on life itself.
Prominent figures like Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, former director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, have been detained for over 180 days without charge, enduring alleged torture, solitary confinement, and medical neglect. Others, such as Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, a respected orthopaedic surgeon, died in Israeli custody under particularly depraved circumstances.
Hundreds of doctors, nurses, and paramedics have been seized during Israeli raids on hospitals. According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, many detainees were stripped, blindfolded, held outdoors in freezing temperatures, and denied food, water, or legal access. In some instances, medical professionals were allegedly tortured, beaten, and interrogated about their political affiliations rather than their work.
These arrests are not isolated incidents. They form a consistent, targeted campaign to eliminate the very professionals who keep Gaza's civilian population alive. Each arrest removes a layer of expertise, a pillar of community trust, and a lifeline for thousands of patients. Saving lives in Gaza can be a death sentence.
Israel claims these detentions fall under "security" provisions in its domestic laws, including the use of administrative detention, which allows individuals to be imprisoned without charge or trial for renewable six-month terms. These measures have long been condemned by the UN as a violation of international law and due process.
Doctors are being detained not as combatants, but as civilians—and not just any civilians, but ones granted special protections under the Geneva Conventions and UN Security Council Resolution 2286, which specifically prohibits attacks on hospitals, but who exactly is upholding it? The deliberate detention and abuse of these professionals is not just illegal; it is a war crime and one that is being permitted to be repeated ad nauseum by Israel.
The removal of senior medical figures like Dr. Abu Safiya, Dr. al-Bursh, and now Dr. Al-Sultan has had catastrophic effects. Entire surgical departments have been shut down. Paediatric care is nearly non-existent. Mental health support has vanished. The void left by these detentions and all the killings has accelerated the collapse of a system already under siege, compounding death and suffering among civilians.
In Gaza, the lack of anaesthesiologists, trauma surgeons, neonatal specialists, and infectious disease experts has turned routine medical challenges into death sentences. The detentions are not simply targeting individuals; they are systematically dismantling every remaining possibility of care.
Reports from detainees describe beatings, prolonged solitary confinement, and denial of medical care even for chronic conditions. The psychological toll is immense. Doctors who survive captivity are often left physically and emotionally shattered. This form of abuse is not just an attack on individuals but on the continuity and resilience of Gaza’s entire health sector, intrinsic to the continuity and resilience of Gaza itself.
While NGOs like MSF, Amnesty, and Human Rights Watch have condemned these actions, much of the global medical community has remained disturbingly silent. The Israeli Medical Association has not spoken out, though in stark contrast, the British Medical Association recently severed ties with Israel over its collaboration with Palantir in Gaza, not just because of the spyware firms role in Gaza, but also its infiltration into the NHS here in the UK as well.
All of these medical staff arrests function as a form of collective punishment. By removing healthcare professionals, Israel cripples Gaza’s ability to treat the wounded, deliver babies, or fight disease. It is a deliberate part of Israel’s genocidal strategy. The aim is to render Gaza unliveable, to break its capacity for recovery, and to demoralise its population.
Moreover, many of the detained doctors were eyewitnesses to Israeli war crimes—including the targeting of ambulances and the killing of patients in hospital beds. Their disappearance conveniently removes credible testimony. So again this is another reason why this is not a war against Hamas; it is also a war against truth.
These detentions reflect a broader pattern of anti-Palestinian racism, where Palestinian professionals are viewed not as civilians but as inherently suspect. The erasure of Palestinian civil society—journalists, teachers, lawyers, and now doctors—is part of a decades-long project of dehumanisation and domination.
This systemic racism is evident in the media, the judiciary, and the rhetoric of Israeli officials. Medical workers are framed not as healers but as potential threats. Their capture is not seen as a loss, but as a tactical success.
The media has largely ignored this crisis. The BBC’s decision to cancel its initial broadcast of Gaza: Doctors Under Attack speaks volumes. It took Channel 4 and an outcry from over 600 journalists and creatives to force the issue into the public eye. Media cowardice, political pressure, and the fear of being labelled antisemitic have all played a role in this silence.
But Channel 4 has finally broken that silence. By showing the bodies, the hospital ruins, the interviews, and the legal documents, it has exposed a crime hidden in plain sight. But one documentary is not enough in and of itself.
The WHO has called the health situation in Gaza catastrophic. The UN has condemned the use of administrative detention. But words are not justice. There has been no serious investigation, no sanctions, and no accountability and a gain, one documentary, as commendable as it is, isn’t enough. Powerful states, especially the US, Germany and UK, continue to fund and arm Israel despite these violations.
The International Court of Justice must investigate these detentions as part of its ongoing inquiry into war crimes in Palestine committed by Israel. The targeted destruction of medical infrastructure and the detention of health workers are not just human rights abuses—they are evidence of genocide by attrition.
Israel’s war is not just military; it is institutional. It targets the systems that make society function—health, education, law, journalism. The aim is to make Palestinian society unviable and unlivable, unable to resist, and easier to erase.
What happens when doctors are labelled terrorists? When medics are blindfolded and beaten for saving lives? It marks the end of medical neutrality, the death of humanitarianism, and the triumph of impunity.
Where the likes of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, MSF, MedGlobal, and dozens of other civil society organisations have called for the immediate and unconditional release of all detained Palestinian medical personnel, this demand must be echoed by governments, universities, hospitals, and individuals worldwide as well.
Justice would mean not only their release but also compensation, rehabilitation, and legal accountability for their abusers. Medical associations must break their silence. Universities must sever research ties. Politicians must be forced to answer for their inaction.
The detention of Palestinian health workers is not a side issue; it is the central moral crisis of this war. It reveals the true nature of Israel’s campaign—not the defence of its citizens, but the annihilation of another people’s capacity to survive.
When bombs fall on hospitals and doctors are dragged from operating theatres to prison cells, the world must choose. Will it defend the principle of medical neutrality? Or will it stand by as the Hippocratic Oath gets trampled beneath the boots of occupation?
In Gaza, doctors are not just saving lives. They are becoming martyrs for truth. Documentaries like Gaza: Doctors Under Attack serve as powerful reminders of the world’s collective shortcomings where it comes to Israel and Gaza, the world cannot claim ignorance any longer, so there can be no more excuses.
Of course it is far from just doctors being targeted, as merely wanting something to eat has become a lethal exercise in Gaza, from the aid distribution centres, where the IDF are now burying people alive, to Café’s getting targeted, because journalists have gathered there to upload their work. Get all the details of those stories in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch.
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