Protector of Honor - Dr. Hammam Mahmoud Hasan Alloh

"If I leave, who will take care of my patients?" They are not animals, but they have the right to receive proper health care. Do you think I went to medical school and studied 14 years to think only about my life and not about my patients?” 

Hammam Mahmoud Hassan Alloh, Palestinian doctor with two children. Born in Gaza on April 26, 1987. Killed in an Israeli airstrike on November 12, 2023, he was 36 years old when he was killed. He specialized in kidney diseases, kidney transplantation and hypertension. He taught at the Islamic University in Gaza and the Faculty of Medicine of Al-Azhar University and worked at Shifa Hospital and the Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital.

Dr. Alloh received his primary and secondary education in Gaza schools, then graduated from Sana'a University Faculty of Medicine in 2011, then specialized in internal medicine and nephrology in Jordan with a medical scholarship from the Qatar Red Crescent Medical Scholarship Program. He came first in the Arab and Jordanian Board exams. In 2018, he was appointed as a nephrologist at the Jordan Hospital. He later returned to Gaza and became the only kidney specialist in the region. He was one of the Qatar Red Crescent consultants who contributed to the implementation of the project “Specializing Surgical Operations for Poor Patients in Gaza”.

Palestinian Doctor Hazem Madi says: “The recent interview with Dr. Hammam reveals the truth about his nature and humanity. He did not leave his job, did not abandon the honor of his profession, and remained in the northern Gaza Strip until his last breath. I knew Hammam as a respected colleague who was devoted to his patients and who did not compromise his principles and message.” I met him as part of Jordan’s doctor training program in Gaza, and at that time there were about a hundred doctors and we continued our specialist training in Amman before returning to the Gaza Strip. We worked in the Ministry of Health, then joined the Faculty of Medicine of the Islamic University of Gaza as lecturers, and before the Israeli attack he moved to work at the Shifa Complex and the Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in the center of the Gaza Strip. Dr. Hammam began his university residency at the Faculty of Medicine of Sana’a University in Yemen, where he graduated with honors and received a bachelor’s degree in medicine. He then returned to Gaza to obtain the necessary certification to practice his profession and moved to Jordan, where he specialized in general internal medicine and came first. He trained Jordanian trainee doctors in medical specialties for the Jordan Board Exam. He also continued to specialize in kidney diseases and transplantation due to the great need for this specialty in the Gaza Strip and returned to his hometown in 2021.

The martyred doctor had been back in Gaza for less than two years and was expecting his third child. His friend Dr. Hazem says: "He was an enduring doctor. He would explain all the details to the patients, listen to their pain and answer their questions. He was a brilliant doctor, familiar with scientific studies and resources, and spent most of his nights in the hospital." Dr. Hammam Alloh joined the convoy of martyred doctors in the Gaza Strip, knowing that Israel was targeting anyone wearing a medical uniform. Palestinian Doctor Mohammed Al-Hajj, who specializes in internal medicine, told Al-Arabi Al-Jadid: "I met him during my residency in Jordan and he was older than me, he embraced me and my colleagues from Gaza and became like a big brother. From a scientific point of view, he was with us step by step during my residency and we would consult him about any issue. He always supported us and constantly checked on our needs and problems. He never hesitated to provide support and assistance. He was a big brother and support and his personality was epitomized by knowledge, morality and tact, so much so that in Jordan he was called 'Legend'."

On November 12, 2023, Israeli Air Force strikes targeted his wife's family home next to Shifa Hospital, where he had gone to rest after a hard day's work. He was martyred along with his father, father-in-law and brother-in-law.

His last message before his martyrdom was when American journalist Amy Goodman asked him why he did not go from the hospital to a safe place in the south. His answer was: "If I leave, who will take care of my patients?" They are not animals, but they have the right to receive proper health care. Do you think I went to medical school and studied 14 years to think only about my life and not about my patients?” 

It is noteworthy that Alloh's mother, Haifa Al-Sarraj, who also works as a doctor, was trapped near the house with her wife, two children aged five and four, and other relatives, including the children, and the civil defense could not reach them.

“He wanted his children to see a day when they could live a free, just and permanent life in Palestine without occupation,” said Dr. Ben Thompson, a nephrologist who works in Canada and Gaza. Thompson spoke of the message Alloh carried on his shoulders, saying it had led him to intensify his recent statements and media appearances, “Insisting that if the world found out what was happening in Gaza, he would intervene and end the suffering of the people of Gaza.” “Like many doctors in Gaza over the past month, despite the terrible conditions, Alloh remained committed to his patients and cared for them despite everything he faced,” Thompson added. In one interview, he said that while Alloh was telling the world the truth about the atrocities that people in Gaza were going through, his house was bombed and his windows were broken. He went to check on his children and his father, who was living with him. He put them in a room, then came back and finished the interview. He went to work the next day, that was his level of commitment.”

In an interview with the CBC, Alloh described the ongoing Israeli siege of Gaza as a "death sentence."

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on October 19, Alloh spoke about the scale of the disaster at Shifa Hospital and the suffering of medical staff, saying doctors were trying to continue working despite being in danger and lacking basic necessities. Alloh described the situation in Gaza in the following way: "Homes are not safe. Hospitals are not safe. What should we do? These people need help. We can't let this affect us."

He added that hospitals were barely able to provide life-saving care because of dwindling resources and a collapsed infrastructure. The young doctor spoke sadly about the deteriorating conditions in hospitals, saying: "We have gone back 100 years. It was bad even before this war. But now, simple lab tests and things that modern medicine considers basic are seen as luxuries."

“The situation has forced us to make a series of terrible decisions, triaging who lives and who dies,” he added. “A few days ago, I had to choose between two patients who needed dialysis, one of whom was a 90-year-old woman,” he said. “I gave her some time, but I should have prioritized the younger one,” he emphasized. “I’m devastated that I had to do this, but I have to make the best use of the resources that we have.”

In another interview with Amy Goodman after the bombing of Baptist Hospital on October 18^th 2023, Alloh described “about 40,000” people seeking shelter outside hospital buildings in Gaza. Alloh spoke out against the bombings: “This building is called Baptist Hospital… Am I clear? It’s Baptist Hospital. It has absolutely nothing to do with Islam or any other extremist group.”

"This is a very old hospital, more than 100 years old. Therefore, it is located in a densely populated area. It was bombed the day before, but the patients, the people who were taking shelter and the staff could not leave the hospital. "He cannot leave the hospital because if he fears for his life and the other medical staff, including nurses and doctors, are doing the same, there will be no one left to treat thousands of patients every day."

On October 18^th, Hammam Alloh spoke to the medical website "Habest Health" about the tragedy of kidney patients in Gaza who need dialysis, as well as those suffering from infectious diseases, and expressed his concern that these diseases were spreading among the people due to medical negligence. Speaking to the International Affairs website on November 7^th, Alloh said that the Israeli blockade "means the cessation of the supply of medicine, blood products, clean water, energy and many other things."

It really happened, the Israeli occupation forces are tightening the embargo on the people of Gaza every day, leaving 2.3 million people hungry, thirsty and deprived of all vital infrastructures, and as Dr. Hammam has determined, literally dragging them into mass death.

We pray to Allah for his mercy and that of his relatives and the hundreds of thousands of innocents who were massacred in Gaza and the Palestinian territories through him.

I would like to thank Intern Dr. Yousef Abualdiouk and Journalist-Author Mustafa Ekici for their contributions.

Prof. Dr. Orhan Alimoğlu

İstanbul Medeniyet University