Khalil al-Nakhal (Khalīl al-Nakhāl) (خليل إبرهيم احمد النخال), 67, was the consultant anesthesiologist and head of anesthesiology at al-Shifa Hospital Complex. A consultant physician is one of the most senior doctors in a hospital. S/he is a specialist in a particular field, trains junior doctors and hospital staff to ensure high performance, and publishes research findings.
Dr. al-Nakhal performed all these roles. His career predates and tracks the methodical capacity-building of Gaza’s health infrastructure, an enormous effort described in a June 2024 Reutersinvestigation. The initiative was acutely needed in light of the blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel in 2007, and the severe restrictions on movement that prevented many patients from traveling outside Gaza to receive timely care.
In 2010, Dr. al-Nakhal was part of a team of doctors who performed two surgeries that had never before been conducted in Gaza. One was on a patient with severe stab wounds to the heart and lung, and the other on a patient with a shattered hand and wrist.
In 2012, he coauthored a note in The Lancet reporting findings on the frequency of nosocomial infections in patients admitted to al-Shifa’s ICU, the largest in Gaza.
At dawn on 12 November 2023, Dr. al-Nakhal was killed by an Israeli airstrike on his home in Gaza City. Murdered along with him was his son, Ahmad Khalil Ibrahim al-Nakhal, his son-in-law, Dr. Hammam Alloh (al-Lawh), the only kidney disease and transplant specialist in Gaza (see his bio in this archive), and Dr. Hammam’s father, Mahmoud Hassan Mostafa al-Louh. Six other family members were injured.
Ambulances could not reach the home, due to the Israeli military’s blocking of all access to the neighborhood, as it oversaw the forcible evacuation of the nearby al-Shifa Hospital.
