Gaza surgeon held by Israel without charge since 2024 raid, family says

Israeli forces have held Gaza vascular surgeon Dr Hassan Khalil Almukayed without charge since a 2024 raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital, according to his family and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. His case adds to growing concern over Palestinian medical workers detained during Israel’s war in Gaza.

Al Jazeera reported that Almukayed was taken from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza in October 2024, after he and other doctors stayed behind with patients as Israeli forces ordered evacuations. The outlet said at least 15 Palestinian doctors from Gaza are currently in Israeli custody.

Nadia Almukayed, his wife, told Al Jazeera that the family had been trapped inside the hospital as Israel intensified operations in northern Gaza. She said soldiers ordered families to leave and walk south, while telling doctors to return to their departments and promising they would not be harmed or arrested.

“I remained in contact with him by phone until midnight the following night, when communication suddenly stopped,” Nadia told Al Jazeera. She said she understood then that her husband had been detained.

Held under Israeli detention law

Naji Abbas of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel told Al Jazeera that Almukayed was arrested on October 25, 2024. Abbas said he is being held under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows detention without trial.

Al Jazeera reported that Almukayed spent seven months at Sde Teiman detention camp before being moved in June last year to Ktziot, also known as Negev Prison. His brother Mahmoud, a nurse at Kamal Adwan, was detained with him and later released in an October 2025 prisoner swap tied to a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel.

PHRI says about 55 healthcare workers remain in Israeli detention, including 15 senior doctors. Abbas told Al Jazeera that the group represents 14 of them, including Almukayed and Dr Hussam Abu Safia, Kamal Adwan’s director, in a petition before Israel’s Supreme Court.

The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory last week called for Abu Safia’s immediate release, according to Al Jazeera. The outlet said rights groups and Abu Safia’s lawyer allege he has faced severe abuse and torture and that his life is in danger.

Family says his health has worsened

Abbas told Al Jazeera that detained doctors have faced hunger and physical violence from prison guards. He said Almukayed, who has diabetes and high blood pressure, has at times been denied medicine and was left for weeks with untreated scabies.

Nadia Almukayed said released Palestinian prisoners told her that her husband had lost 40kg, or 88 pounds. Al Jazeera said it contacted the Israel Prison Service and the Israeli military about allegations raised by families and lawyers but did not receive a response.

Almukayed’s lawyers have seen him four times since his arrest, according to Al Jazeera. The last visit was in January, before visits were suspended after the United States and Israel began a war on Iran in late February, the outlet reported.

Life displaced in southern Gaza

Al Jazeera reported that Almukayed was born in Jabalia camp in 1972, studied medicine in Romania, worked for a period in Sweden and returned to Gaza in 2010. His nephew, Nemer Shaheen, told the outlet that Almukayed treated people from a clinic at his home without charging them.

Nadia now lives with the couple’s three children in a tent in al-Mawasi, near Khan Younis. She works as a mathematics teacher for UNRWA and sends messages to her husband through his lawyers when visits are possible.

She told Al Jazeera she has not told him that his father, Khalil Almukayed, died after the hospital raid. According to the family, Khalil had been briefly detained, released in poor condition and died a few months later.

This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.