We feature one of the final interviews with Palestinian doctor Hammam Alloh, who died Saturday when an Israeli artillery shell struck his wife’s home, killing him, his father, brother-in-law and father-in-law.
On October 31, Democracy Now! spoke to Dr. Alloh about conditions at Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest hospital, and his decision to continue working, as he called on people in the United States and the rest of the world to take action against Israel’s indiscriminate assault. When asked about why he refused to leave his patients, Dr. Alloh responded, “You think I went to medical school and for my postgraduate degrees for a total of 14 years so I think only about my life and not my patients?”
Transcript
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
Nearly 200 medical workers have been reported killed in Gaza since October 7th. Over the weekend, Democracy Now! learned that Dr. Hammam Alloh was killed Saturday when an Israeli artillery shell struck his family home, killing him, his father, his brother-in-law and his father-in-law. Dr. Alloh was a kidney specialist, a nephrologist, who worked at Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza. He was 36 years old. He leaves behind his wife and two children, a 4- and a 5-year-old. Dr. Hammam Alloh spoke to Democracy Now! October 31 in one of his last interviews.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Hammam Alloh, you’ve said, “Every day, I see a fear in their eyes that I can’t do much about. It’s very painful. If you have kids, you know how horrible it is not to be able to comfort them, to ensure they are alright, to make them hope for anything beyond living one more day.” If you can talk about that in the hospital, which, as you said, is not just a hospital for sick people? Thousands are taking refuge at Al-Shifa and al-Quds and the other hospitals. And also, we’re talking to you as you just left Al-Shifa. How do you comfort your family? What’s happening to your family as you’re at the hospital?