Utolsó frissítés: 2026.07.15. — Szerző: Anti-Propaganda News Blog
Hassan Khalil Almukayed is one of at least 15 Palestinian doctors from Gaza currently held in Israeli captivity.
The last time Nadia Almukayed saw her husband, Dr. Hassan Khalil Almukayed, was when he was in the hospital in Gaza, which he refused to leave.
By October 2024, Israel's genocidal war against the Palestinian enclave had engulfed the Almukayed family, including Hassan's father and other relatives. As Israeli forces intensified their attacks on northern Gaza, the family found themselves trapped within the walls of the region's Kamal Adwan Hospital, where Hassan worked as a vascular surgeon.
„"We couldn't evacuate northern Gaza quickly," Nadia told Al Jazeera. "We fled from place to place in the north until we ended up stranded at Kamal Adwan Hospital."”
Hassan Almukayed is one of at least 15 Palestinian doctors from Gaza currently held in Israeli custody, most notably the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safia. Last week, a UN independent international commission of inquiry called on Israel to immediately release Abu Safia, who has been held without charge for more than 18 months. Rights groups and Abu Safia’s lawyer say there are credible reports that he is being subjected to „continuous and severe ill-treatment,” including torture, and that his life is in imminent danger.
Abu Safia and Almukayed were among the Palestinian doctors who refused to leave newborns alone after the Israeli army ordered a forced evacuation of northern Gaza.
„"We both know what will happen"”
Nadia Almukayed said her husband continued to work throughout, as the number of Palestinians killed and wounded by Israeli forces continued to rise. „From the beginning of the war until he was taken away, he never stopped caring for the sick and wounded,” she recalled, huddled with her children in a tent in al-Mawasi, a refugee camp near Khan Younis.
When Israeli tanks overran the hospital in October 2024, soldiers ordered the families to leave on foot and head south. The Israeli army, Nadia says, „promised the doctors that they would not be harmed or arrested” as they were sent back to their departments. „Of course, the occupying forces did not keep their promises,” she said.
In a tearful farewell, Nadia told her husband, „We both know what will happen, but we have to accept God’s will and be patient so that He can give us strength and comfort.” Nadia recalled that Hassan’s only response was, „It is God’s will.” Nadia then left with their three children: their son Muhammad, 13, and their daughters Malak, 11, and Hala, 8. „I kept in touch with him on the phone until midnight the next day, when the line suddenly went dead,” Nadia said. „At that moment, I knew Hassan had been arrested.”
According to Naji Abbas of Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHRI), Hassan Almukayed was arrested on October 25, 2024. The doctors are being held by Israel under the so-called „unlawful combatants” law, which allows for indefinite detention without trial – a category that Abbas said „does not exist in international law.”.
Hassan doesn't know that his father is dead.
Hassan Almukayed has been in Israeli custody without charge for nearly 21 months now. He was initially taken to the notorious Sde Teiman prison camp, where he was held for seven months. His brother, Mahmoud, a nurse at the hospital, was also detained with him. The family's first clue about the men's whereabouts was a photo they found online, showing Mahmoud stripped to his underwear and being loaded onto a military truck heading to Israel.
Mahmoud was released as part of the October 2025 prisoner exchange deal, but Hassan was not among them. Last June, he was transferred to Ktziot Prison (also known as Negev Prison), where almost all other Palestinian doctors are being held.
The brothers still don’t know that their father, Khalil Almukayed, has died. Khalil was also trapped in the hospital with his sons when the facility was taken over. For a long time, the family didn’t know what happened to the man, who was in his 70s. It was eventually revealed that he was released after a short detention, but according to Nemer Shaheen, Khalil’s granddaughter, the soldiers took his medication and gave him water in a bottle with holes in it. Khalil was released in a „very poor mental and psychological state” and died a few months later „out of grief and mourning for his sons.” His wife, Nadia, was afraid of her husband and didn’t dare tell him about his father’s death, even in messages sent through lawyers.
„The Doctor” from Jabalia
To the residents of Gaza’s Jabalia camp, where he was born in 1972, Hassan was simply „the doctor.” He studied medicine in Romania, worked in Sweden, and returned to Gaza in 2010 to care for his elderly parents. „When people needed medical care, they just knocked on his door — for free,” said his nephew, Shaheen. When the war cut off Gaza, Almukayed was one of two surgeons who remained in the besieged north. „But he stayed true to his oath,” Shaheen added. After his car was bombed, he rode a donkey cart to the hospital.
„They are starving everyone”
Naji Abbas said the incident in Kamal Adwan was part of a „systematic effort” by Israel to target hospitals in Gaza to drive out Palestinians. „Every time the Israeli army raided a health facility, dozens of staff were arrested,” he said, adding that more than 350 health workers had been detained during the war. PHRI said some 55 health workers were still being held, including 15 senior doctors.
Describing the conditions of his detention, Abbas said: „Everyone is starved. They are subjected to physical violence, if not daily, then weekly.” He told Almukayed’s lawyer that in Sde Teiman the lights are never turned off and they can only sleep at night. Almukayed suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure; he is sometimes deprived of his medication and has suffered from untreated scabies for weeks. According to his family, he has lost 40 kilograms during his captivity.
The Israeli Prison Service and the military did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment on the allegations. Asked why they were still being held, Abbas said: "We believe the state is afraid of the voices of Dr. Abu Safia, Dr. Hassan Almukayed and the other doctors."„
Devastating Gaza: 'paradise' compared to prison 'hell'
Upon his release, Mahmoud found his home in ruins and his family living in tents. Although the scale of the destruction was shocking, Mahmoud described the Israeli prison as a „life in hell,” while Gaza, despite its total destruction, was a „paradise” by comparison.
Nadia now works as a math teacher for UNRWA to support her three children. The hardest thing for her is watching her eldest son, Muhammad, go through adolescence without a father. When the lawyer visits the doctor, the children eagerly await his voicemails. Hassan’s most recent message to his wife was: „Please bake a cake for Hala? Her birthday is in two days.”
Children often say, "I wish Dad were here, he would throw us a party. I wish he would take us to the beach. I wish, I wish..."„
