Hammam Alloh (Hammām al-Lawḥ) (همام اللوح), age 36, was the only physician specializing in nephrology in Gaza. Educated abroad, he returned to Gaza where he taught at the Faculties of Medicine of the Islamic University and al-Azhar University and worked as a clinician at al-Shifa’ Hospital and the Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital. As Israeli attacks on the hospitals intensified, he refused to leave his patients and was killed by an Israeli airstrike next to al-Shifa’.

Dr. Alloh was born in Gaza on 26 April 1987. He received his primary and secondary education in Gaza schools. He traveled to Yemen to attend the Sana’a University Faculty of Medicine, obtaining his MD degree with honors in 2011. Subsequently, he specialized in internal medicine and nephrology in Jordan with a medical scholarship from the Qatar Red Crescent Medical Scholarship Program, and placed first in the Arab, Jordanian, and Palestinian board exams in his specialty. In 2018, he was appointed as a nephrologist at the Jordan Hospital, and in 2021 he returned to Gaza where his specialty was sorely needed. He continued to teach and treat patients with kidney disease and hypertension.

Dr. Alloh’s friend, Dr. Hazem Madi, who worked with him during his training in Amman and later as a colleague in Gaza, said: “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. Mohammed Al-Hajj, who specializes in internal medicine, talked with al-Arabi al-Jadid about Dr. Alloh: “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.”

When American journalist Amy Goodman asked Dr. Allouh on Democracy Now! why he was not leaving the hospital for a safer place in the south, he replied: “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?” He also spoke with great distress about how he had to triage dialysis patients in the face of dwindling resources. On 26 October 2023 he gave an extended interview to Maya Rosen of Jewish Currents: “I always wanted to progress in my field—to learn more, to teach more. In Gaza, I haven’t been able to do that. I hope to raise my kids to be ambitious—not to think about war, missiles, rockets. Every day, I see a fear in their eyes that I can’t do much about. It’s very painful. If you have kids, you know how horrible it is not to be able to comfort them, to ensure they are alright, to make them hope for anything beyond living one more day.” 

(Dr. Alloh and his two children)

On 12 November 2023, Israeli Air Force strikes targeted his wife’s family home next to al-Shifa’ Hospital, where he had gone to rest after a long day’s work. He was killed along with his father, father-in-law Khalil al-Nakhal (see bio in this archive), and brother-in-law. He left behind his pregnant wife and two children, ages four and five.

Photo credits: Frontline Defenders; Democracy Now!