After months of detention, torture, and near-total isolation in Israeli prisons, a Palestinian surgeon has returned to the one place he never gave up on — the operating room. His story is one of resilience, resistance, and unshaken professional duty.
“I promise you, as soon as I leave here—even if I’m in a wheelchair—I will return to the operating room.” This is what Dr. Issam Abu Ajwa told an Israeli investigation officer during his 200-day detention, during which he was moved between various Israeli prisons and subjected to the most horrific forms of torture.
The story began at Al-Ma’madani Hospital in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, where Dr. Abu Ajwa had been working as a volunteer consultant surgeon since the beginning of the war on Gaza, nearly ten months earlier.
On December 17, Israeli occupation forces surrounded the hospital, launched intense airstrikes in its vicinity, and then stormed it, arresting a number of doctors and staff, including Dr. Abu Ajwa.
In his testimony to the Nawa website, Dr. Abu Ajwa recounted how he, along with a group of young men, elderly people, and children, was taken by the soldiers. Their hands were bound, their eyes blindfolded, and they were transported to a military base resembling barracks.
He said, “The interrogation lasted for 125 days, using inhumane methods. In the severe cold, they would pour water on our bodies and turn on air conditioners and fans. In the peak of summer heat, they would place us in sealed rooms with no ventilation.”
He added, “Every two hours, we would be transferred to a new investigator, and the main question was always: ‘Where are the Israeli prisoners?’”
To provide context, on October 7, the Israeli occupying state launched a war on the Gaza Strip following a military operation carried out by the Al-Qassam Brigades, affiliated with Hamas, under the name 'Al-Aqsa Flood'. During this operation, 240 Israelis were captured, and 70 hostages were released as part of a prisoner exchange agreement in November 2023 involving 210 Palestinian detainees.
Dr. Abu Ajwa sarcastically asked, “How am I supposed to know where the prisoners are? Please tell me, I am a doctor. Just a doctor at a hospital affiliated with the Anglican Episcopal Church in Jerusalem.”
Further illustrating the brutality he endured, Dr. Abu Ajwa recalled that when one of the investigators learned he was a surgeon, he laughed and said, “You will leave here as a patient. You will need someone to treat you because you’ll leave with your hands paralyzed.”
Dr. Abu Ajwa responded, “I promised him that even if I left without hands at all, I would return to the operating room.”
He described how each interrogator had their own method of torturing and humiliating Palestinian prisoners. The most difficult, he said, was when they stripped the prisoner of clothing, hung them on a wall with hands and feet bound, and beat them mercilessly.
He continued, “The filthiest torture was when they brought a toilet brush and said they would clean our teeth with it. In my case, they broke my front teeth using it.”
During his time in Negev prison, Dr. Abu Ajwa lost 35 kilograms due to lack of food. Breakfast consisted of just one and a half spoons of rice and a small piece of tomato or cucumber, the size of a finger. Lunch was exactly the same for six straight months.
According to his testimony, soldiers woke prisoners at 6 a.m., confiscated their bedding, and returned it only at midnight. No hygiene products were provided, which led to many skin diseases among inmates.
He said, “We bathed only once a week, using cold water without soap or shampoo, and we were denied medical treatment. I have diabetes and heart disease, and I only received medication after a very long time.”
Even access to water was limited to one hour per day. “Some prisoners suffered from dehydration, especially given the extreme heat inside Negev prison, which is located in the desert south of Palestine,” he added.
In one of the worst moments, Abu Ajwa lost consciousness and feeling in his hands due to severe torture. When he woke up, he saw an Israeli investigator and doctor laughing. “They were very happy because I had lost feeling in my hands. They said, ‘We’re glad you will never be a surgeon again.’”
He recalled, “At that moment, I promised them that I would return to my work—even before I saw my family.”
Finally, at Shohada’a Al-Aqsa Hospital—where many doctors had been displaced or forced to flee—Dr. Issam Abu Ajwa was warmly welcomed. When he saw a journalist, he stood up and said, while being filmed, “I send a message to that investigator: as I promised, I am here, and I will now go into the operating room. My health is good.”
With those words, Dr. Abu Ajwa walked back into the operating room—not just to perform surgery, but to reclaim his dignity, purpose, and place in a wounded nation still fighting to heal.
