Speaking to The Guardian, a leading Gaza doctor detained by Israel for 665 days says the destroyed healthcare system has left patients untreated and physicians powerless.
Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, one of Gaza’s most senior emergency care and anaesthesiology consultants, described in an interview with The Guardian on Monday the devastation he encountered upon returning to work after 665 days in Israeli detention, saying the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system left him overwhelmed and in tears.
Muhanna said that during his detention, he and other prisoners were “completely cut off from the outside world” and that the hope of reuniting with his family and returning to Gaza sustained him throughout his imprisonment.
However, upon his return and first visit to Al-Awda Hospital, the scale of destruction overwhelmed him. “My chest tightened, and my tears began to flow,” he recalled.
No staff, no equipment, no medicine: Dr Ahmed Muhanna, one of Gaza’s most senior emergency care consultants, says the scale of destruction he saw on his release after 665 days in an Israeli prison brought him to tears https://t.co/uN9J6sZEX6
— LPHR (@LPHR_Lawyers) January 12, 2026
Healthcare System in Ruins
According to the interview, Muhanna returned to a hospital stripped of staff, medical equipment, and essential medicines. While he was detained, 75 of his colleagues at Al-Awda Hospital were killed.
Since October 7, 2023, the NGO Healthcare Workers Watch reports that 1,200 Palestinian healthcare workers have been killed and 384 detained by Israeli occupation forces.
Despite the ceasefire, Muhanna warned that Gaza is facing a renewed wave of disease and preventable deaths, particularly among children suffering from severe malnutrition. The World Health Organization reports that 77 percent of Gaza’s population, including 100,000 children, continues to face “high levels of acute food insecurity.”
“The deliberate military targeting of the healthcare system has succeeded not only in destroying infrastructure but also in depriving people of medical care and increasing mortality rates,” Muhanna said.
ActionAid stands with Dr. Ahmed Muhanna; a Gaza doctor jailed for refusing to abandon his patients during the 2023 bombardment.
He endured over a year of torture and inhumane detention.
No one should suffer for saving lives. Protect Gaza’s medics. pic.twitter.com/afXvt0nnDS— ActionAid (@ActionAid) November 12, 2025
Medical Shortages and Blocked Aid
According to the UN Human Rights Office, 94 percent of Gaza’s hospitals have been damaged or destroyed. Muhanna says that despite the ceasefire, Israeli restrictions on medical supplies and essential nutrients persist, contributing to avoidable deaths.
“There is not a single functional MRI machine in Gaza today,” he said. “There is only one CT scanner.”
The shortages are worsening patient outcomes. Cancer cases are progressing untreated, dialysis machines are scarce, and kidney failure cases are increasing. “I am a doctor, but I am helpless and unable to do anything to help people,” Muhanna said, adding that the scale of the crisis nonetheless drives him to continue working.
Conditions deteriorated further after Israel announced plans to revoke the licenses of 37 international NGOs, including medical aid organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontières.
Trauma of Detention
Since his release, Muhanna said he has not had time to process the trauma he endured in Israeli detention, where he reports being subjected to torture, humiliation, and the denial of food and medical care. A recent UN report concluded that Israel maintains a “de facto state policy” of organized torture.
Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, Director of Al-Awda Hospitals, tells @AJEnglish about the collapse of Gaza’s health system after years of genocide.
After nearly 2 years in Israeli detention for refusing to abandon his patients, he shares harrowing stories of survival and resilience. pic.twitter.com/UdbjiUPEHM— جمعية العودة الصحية والمجتمعية – AWDA (@awdaps) November 8, 2025
Muhanna said he was held blindfolded with his hands tied for 24 days at Sde Teiman, before being transferred to al-Naqab prison, where he was severely beaten and suffered a broken rib. He witnessed two detainees die due to the denial of medical treatment, including a man suffering from a gastrointestinal obstruction whose urgent condition was ignored.
Conditions, he said, were dire. “I was always hungry … placed with 40 detainees in a small tent with no access to bathrooms from 4 pm until 5 am every day. It was nothing short of a tragedy.” Muhanna was never formally charged.
Upon his release, he said that his first act was to find his mother. “I hugged her tightly. We stayed in that embrace for five minutes before anyone could bring themselves to pull us apart,” he recalled.
Seeing his wife and children again, Muhanna added, “felt like life had come back to me.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
Israel has no morality and the world watched , why do governments not sanction this rogue state all are complicit in the genocide