“We are in the theater, in the operating room, full darkness, no water, no electricity. But we have a hero, surgeons in Gaza.”
- Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, 1974-2024
It goes without saying that the livestreamed cruelty of Israel’s genocide has been indescribably shocking and painful to witness over the last 21 months. A particularly problematic and disturbing aspect of it has been around Gaza’s hospitals, targeting healthcare workers and the besieged Strip’s medical infrastructure at an unprecedented scale, and in clear violation of international law.
Now, a new documentary, available in most countries across the globe exclusively here at Zeteo, takes you inside those hospitals to hear accounts from doctors there, on the ground, about the impossibility of saving lives in a Western-backed Israeli onslaught. It is a comprehensive investigation into the systematic targeting of Gaza’s healthcare system, including all 36 of its main hospitals, multiple times, and the killing of its doctors, nurses, and paramedics.
‘Gaza: Doctors Under Attack,’ produced by the award-winning Basement Films team that brought us last year’s Zeteo exclusive ‘Israel’s Reel Extremism,’ includes harrowing on-camera testimony from Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, who was arrested by the Israeli military in December 2023 and, according to a UN report, “subjected to sexual violence in an Israeli prison prior to his death in Israeli custody.”
It also features shocking accounts of torture at the Israeli prison Sde Teiman from an anonymous Israeli doctor there, who accuses his fellow Israeli medics of being complicit in the abuse of Palestinians held in detention.
This was a film that the BBC had originally commissioned. However, after several delays, they decided, very controversially, not to publish it, issuing a statement saying they had “come to the conclusion that broadcasting this material risked creating a perception of partiality.” In a response, Basement Films, in a statement posted on Twitter/X, said, “The truth must be told… It’s a damning indictment that it is not possible under the national broadcaster’s current leadership.”
The final film that you’re about to watch, above, is no longer a BBC film. It is ours.
For the tens of thousands of you who are paid subscribers to Zeteo, we could not have acquired it without your support. In fact, it may have remained in the BBC archives forever, never to be seen or shared as widely as we can do so now. For those of you in the UK, you can watch it on Channel 4 – and we commend that British broadcaster for also stepping forth and allowing this to broadcast in the UK.
Around 1,500 doctors, nurses and healthcare workers have been killed at home or in their workplaces in Gaza, a conservative estimate, and many have been illegally taken into Israel where they, their relatives, human rights groups, watchdogs, allege they have been tortured, and some of them killed. Attacks on hospitals and healthcare workers are prohibited under international law, but started almost the day after Hamas’s attacks on October 7, 2023 which killed 1,200 Israelis.
Please note that this is not a Zeteo original documentary, like ‘Israel’s Reel Extremism’ or ‘Who Killed Shireen?’ but one we acquired once it had been filmed, edited and finished, so as to share it with the world as fast as possible.
We at Zeteo, as journalists, as a media organization that has vowed to uncover and share the truth and hold those in power to account, had one clear goal: to ensure this important documentary from Basement Films, dropped by the BBC, was released. We cannot say when this genocide will end, when the Western world will say ‘enough,’ but we take our responsibility seriously in making sure the public knows – and that no one forgets – what is happening. Thank you for supporting and joining us on this mission.
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