Diary of a Young Doctor

Five days before 7 October 2023, a young Palestinian doctor returns to Gaza, having completed his medical studies abroad. His family gathers to celebrate his achievements and welcome him home. On 11 October, seventy-five members of his extended family are killed in an airstrike, and thus begins his incredible story of survival and service to his people.

For more than eight months, Dr Ezzideen Shehab volunteers at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, witnessing first-hand catastrophic injuries and deaths, and working under the most difficult circumstances imaginable, including shortages of life-saving medicines and equipment. Constantly targeted by the IDF, the Indonesian hospital is ultimately destroyed.

In December 2024, Dr Shehab co-founds the Al-Rahma Medical Centre, to provide free medical care in northern Gaza where no functioning hospitals remain. The Al-Rahma clinic is damaged multiple times and in July 2025 is forced to close. Dr Shehab and his family are displaced for the fifth time with no hope of ever returning to their demolished home in the north of Gaza.

Throughout it all, Dr Shehab posts regular updates on the situation for his patients and for his people. His clarity and humanity shine bright as he describes those he treats, and his incomprehension at the unfolding genocide and the silence of the world in the face of the ongoing atrocities. Diary of a Young Doctor is an unforgettable testimony of one of the most shameful periods in recent history.