At the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, Dr Iyad, director of the Kamal Adwan hospital’s maternity department, refused to leave Gaza City, opting to stay with his patients and fulfil his humanitarian mission. But after a month of intense Israeli bombardment and siege, including the targeting of hospitals, he decided to take his family to safety.
He took the road instructed by Israeli forces, assuming it would grant him safe passage. But neither that nor his identifiable medical uniform made any difference.
“Nurse, come,” the soldier said when he spotted him, according to Dina. That was the last time she saw her father.
“I cried a lot that day,” Dina, 19, said. “The last words I said to him were, ‘May God protect you, my father, my love.’" For the next seven months, Iyad, 53, was forcibly disappeared. Dina had no information about his whereabouts.
Her hopes of seeing him again were shattered earlier this month, when it was revealed he died “under torture” in Israeli detention, six days after his arrest.
Middle East Eye is UK based. They cover stories mostly pertaining to the Middle East and Africa. Currently Gaza and Sudan are what they cover most on.
Because their employees often have connections in the regions they are able to get a more local perspective on the news than most of our mainstream outlets.