Zaina Alqudwa is an intern doctor who graduated in 2024 from Al-Azhar University and is currently completing her internship year in Gaza’s hospitals. Dr. Alqudwa has been involved with one of the largest cancer awareness studies in Palestine and has conducted research in public health and women’s hygiene, contributing multiple published articles in peer-reviewed medical journals. In addition to her medical work, she has an interest in storytelling, writing for the Institute for Palestine Studies, We Are Not Numbers, and other venues to raise awareness about the human impact of the ongoing genocide.

We spoke to Dr. Alqudwa about her training in medical school under genocide, rotations at Al-Shifa hospital before and after the Israeli army attacked the medical complex, the professors and classmate she lost to Israeli bombings, and the struggle to continue providing care for patients under imposed starvation when even medical professionals are food-insecure.

Alireza Doostdar conducted the interview over multiple days using an internet messaging service. Dr. Alqudwa’s recorded voice messages were subsequently stitched together and edited lightly for continuity and flow.

 

Scroll down for the interview transcripts.

The video below shows an emergency room where Dr. Alqudwa works. “This is what an emergency room looks like when they bring injured patients,” she said. “The huge volume. People are everywhere. There is no space to walk in between.”

 

This photo shows Dr. Alqudwa with her friend and classmate Maryam Shahab (left) during a hands-on training in a suturing course they took together. The Israeli army murdered Maryam with her family in Jabaliyya in December 2023.

Full interview transcripts below, lightly edited for clarity.

Alireza Doostdar (AD): This is a conversation with Dr. Zaina Alqudwa, an intern doctor who graduated in December 2024 from Al-Azhar University, Gaza. Dr. Alqudwa has been a researcher in one of the largest cancer awareness studies in Palestine and has also conducted research in public health and women’s hygiene, contributing multiple published papers in peer-reviewed journals. Because of the severe limits that Israel has imposed on communications in Gaza, I was not actually able to speak with Dr. Alqudwa live. Instead, I sent her questions over a messaging service, and she sent me her voice-recorded responses over several days. We have stitched these responses together into one long recording. But if you notice differences in sound quality and ambient noise, this is because the messages were recorded at different times and in different locations. You will also notice a persistent buzz in the background as Dr. Alqudwa speaks. These are the sounds of Israeli drones flying nonstop over Gaza. I actually asked Dr. Alqudwa about this noise, and this is what she had to say.

Zaina Alqudwa (ZA): The buzzing sound in the background, this is the sound of the drones. We hear it every day. It’s nonstop. I don’t remember a day without this sound. I can say I am used to it, but after three years of constantly hearing it, I can say it is the background of my days and nights as well. After  two years or almost two years,  it’s been the musical background of my day and my night as well.

AD: Dr. Alqudwa, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. I’m really grateful. I know this is an exceptionally difficult and challenging time. I wanted to begin by asking you to tell us a little bit about your early life and education in Gaza. What was it like to grow up there? Is your family actually from Gaza or were they refugees?

ZA: Well, both of my grandparents were born in Yafa.  But my grandfather moved from Yafa to Jerusalem before the Nakba. My grandmother has lived the Nakba, but because my grandfather did not, we are not considered refugees. But you can say I am from Gaza and that I have origins from Yafa.

I spent my whole life here in Gaza. What was it like? – It was full of challenges. It was not really as it should be. I am twenty-five years old, and in twenty-five years. I have lived through eight wars and attacks. It has been a time filled with actions, events, and violence.

AD: Thank you for that. Tell us about medical school. How did you choose the field? What was it like to study medicine in Gaza before the genocide?

ZA: I started medical school back in 2018. There was no unique story behind choosing this [field]. The last year of high school in Palestine is called توجيهية Tawjihiyeh. And according to your GPA or final score at the end of that year, you can decide which field or university to go to. I had a high score, I had [the equivalent of a final score of] A+. I scored 98.4 out of 100. It is considered high. And all of my family members and my relatives started to call me دكتورة duktura, which is what we call a female doctor in Arabic. And that is why I went to medical school.

What was it like to study medicine in Gaza before? It was like any other area in the world. I think studying medicine is similar in all countries, and all medical schools are the same. They are tough. We have exams and we have hard teachings, everything is the same. So there was nothing special about [studying medicine] in Gaza. I hear of many students in Egypt, and Jordan, and the US, and we all complain of the same things.

AD: Right, thank you. Did you travel to other parts of Palestine before the genocide? I noticed that you took a course at Birzeit University on social medicine and I’m wondering what the process was like that made it possible for you to attend the class given all the Israeli restrictions on travel and the general blockade.

ZA: Yes, I have traveled to Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus, Yafa, and to بِئرِ السِبْع Bi’r As-Sabi‘, I think in Hebrew we call it Beersheba.

What was the process that made it possible for [me] to attend the class? Well, the [academic institutions] that made the class were Birzeit University and Harvard University in partnership with the WHO. So the WHO made all the logistics [possible],  and they were the ones who sent our names to the Israeli side and to get us approved. Being accepted in that course was not easy at all. It was a very long process, starting with filling in an application form and passing this process, then passing an interview, and in the end, waiting if the Israeli side will accept and approve my name or not. So it was a very long process and it was really stressful.

AD: Now I know that you have been involved in quite a few research initiatives on cancer, and on public health, and so on. Can you tell us a little bit about these projects?

ZA: Well, in November 2018, I was accepted to be part of the largest cancer research group in Palestine called Cancer Awareness in Palestine. I was accepted to be part of the cervical cancer research team. I was supposed to collect data from women. I have interviewed around three hundred women in Gaza – in North Gaza in Jabalia, and Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun. It took me around three months to interview them and calculate all the data. Actually, I think that was in 2020, because I remember by the end of the third month [of this research project], there was COVID, and the hospital prevented all the unnecessary events, such as interviews and bedside teachings. Everything was prevented then, and even education itself had stopped for that time.

The founder of the project wanted to collect more data than what we had already collected. But we could not continue because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We thought it would be only one or two months [of project delay], but then we decided that we’d just continue. So I joined [the research team] in data management and analysis. I learned a lot during that year. It was my first time dealing with a huge number of case numbers, and SPSS gave me that experience. I have looked all over the whole process from writing, to how to do data analysis, et cetera. So for me, it was a very unique experience. And, I think, I had my first publication [with that project] in 2021.

But in 2021, I had also joined other projects, but none of those continued to publication. One of them was about studying COVID patients in the West Bank. I was supposed to call them and [collect research data], and the hardest part about that was that they could identify that I’m not from the West Bank, they could tell that I am from Gaza. So it was really hard because of the occupation and the security problems, et cetera. They were afraid that I’m just calling them to collect information [that would be relayed to the occupation]. Anyway, unfortunately, this project did not continue.

Also, I had joined another project that didn’t continue in 2021, studying upper and lower lymphoma management in the Gaza Strip. At that time there was the March of Return. People were going very very close to the Israeli borders and they were [shot at] in their limbs, and we were studying [limb injury] management, but unfortunately this project took a lot of time and effort from all of us, and in the end it did not continue.

In my last year of medical school, we were supposed to do a research paper, and this time I was the [research project] leader. We studied menstrual hygiene practices among female university students in Gaza Strip. For me, I’m highly interested in women’s health, as you can tell. Hygiene and menstruation are supposed to be very normal, but during war situations, they are something else. So from there, it all started. I’m a little bit anxious nowadays because we have [just] submitted this paper, hopefully it will be published soon. First I wish to be accepted and then published very soon.

AD: Okay, let’s talk about your medical education since the genocide began. What happened to your university and specifically the medical school after October 2023? Do you know any doctors, professors, or classmates who were martyred, or injured, or disappeared?

ZA: Well, my school is Al-Azhar Medical School, Al-Azhar University. It was destroyed, but not totally, not leveled to the ground. So we can say it is partially destroyed. And how it looks right now, does not look like that building was used before for studying and teaching. It tells, as it is, that this building had been left [abandoned] for many years.

Do I know of any doctors, professors, or classmates who were martyred, or injured, or disappeared? Unfortunately, I do. I know them personally. Starting with my professors and doctors, I want to recall what I remember.

I want to start with Dr. Rafat Labad, the Director of the Medical Department at my school, who was the one responsible for our training in the Internal Medicine Department. I will always remember his bedside manners and how he dealt with elderly patients, when he kissed their foreheads or their hands, as a sign of showing respect.

Another one is Dr. Elias Arteen. He is the Director of the Surgery Department at my school. He is the person responsible for general surgery training, rotations, and lectures, et cetera. He stayed in Gaza City even when Israel asked everyone in Northern Gaza to move to the South, and he was injured. I do not remember the exact date of when he was injured, but I do know that when he was injured and operated on, [the medical team] succeeded in removing one shrapnel from his chest, but he still had other shrapnel [in his body], and he moved to Egypt, although he is half-Egyptian. His father is from Egypt and his mother is from Palestine.

Who else do I know? I know many. My classmate, Maryam Shehab. Maryam is one of the most amazing colleagues I have ever met. Maryam was my partner in a course for first and second-year students to get to know operation rooms and surgical instruments and suturing skills. Maryam and I did suturing on the same mattress. I witnessed her first stitch, and she witnessed mine. And we lost Maryam…

AD: What happened to Maryam?

ZA: Maryam was killed along with all her family members. I know that Maryam and her father and her brothers were killed all together in Jabalia. I can also share when exactly,  but I have to look for that. Just give me some time.

In December 2023 in Jabalia.

AD: الله يرحمها. [May God rest her soul]. I’m so sorry.

AD: You spent over a year of your medical school studying as the genocide unfolded in Gaza. What was that experience like? Did you study in person? Did you study online? Did you have access to classrooms, or lab facilities, or access to hospitals? How did you overcome the challenges of studying medicine under these really horrendous conditions?

ZA: What was the experience like? Well, my study was supposed to be online, but unfortunately, during that year, my access to the internet was really, really hard. Unfortunately, I could not have that 24-hour connection. So, part of [my learning] was in-person, but the majority was online. The in-person classes, or what we call bedsides, were done in hospitals. So yes, I had access to hospitals. I [went] to the Al-Aqsa Hospital and the Awda Hospital in Al-Nusairat. As I was displaced in Deir Al-Balah, they [the school] were asking us to go to hospitals in the same areas we were displaced in. They were not asking us to [navigate] between faraway hospitals. For online lectures and class, unfortunately, I was not able to attend any of these because of the internet issue.

How did I overcome the challenge of studying medicine under [such circumstances]? Well, I remember because I didn’t have connection where I was displaced, so whenever I wanted to connect and have a stable internet connection, as someone who prefers listening – I love videos and visual learning, so for me, studying without videos and without pictures was really, really hard. So it took me some time to find a place near where I was displaced that provided internet service. It cost me around five shekels per two hours, and I had to walk around thirteen minutes. How I overcame this challenge is I would tell myself “just go this time, and next time life will be okay. You never know, you might have internet in your place the next day.” Promises that never happened.

AD: Since you graduated at the end of 2024, you have had some clinical experience and I would like to hear what it has been like working as a doctor, not only in a war zone, but during an active genocide.

ZA: I started working as an intern doctor in February 2025. I started in the obstetric gynecology rotation at As-Sahaba Medical Complex. For me, it was an amazing experience because, at that time, As-Sahaba was the main hospital for maternity services. And As-Sahaba is an NGO hospital, it’s not governmental. So, it is not prepared to serve the whole Northern part of Gaza. So we are the only hospital serving  Gaza City and the North of Gaza. Or, what we call Northern Gaza. And we were receiving, in evening night shifts, around twenty-five to thirty normal deliveries, and five to six, or seven caesareans. That was too much for As-Sahaba. We have only one doctor in the delivery room and one intern doctor. So we have two doctors for the emergency, obstetric emergency, and the delivery room. And because of this huge load, I had responsibilities even more than I was supposed to. They gave me a list of things that I had to do and complete so that they could accept my training. So in addition to helping them and working and as part of the team, I was there to train and to improve my skills. So you can say it was a training job. I remember during some nights, I was the only one in the obstetric emergency room, and I was the only one who could decide which [case had to] go to the delivery room, and which one could wait, and which one needed to be sent to operation right now. So I was the one responsible for making decisions without referring to any senior doctor. At first, that was a huge load on me. I didn’t know if I could do it or not, if I would [be able to] continue or not. But then I did it,  and I was able to deal with even many more cases. I learned a lot on how to manage my time, how to send patients to the right direction, and how to make the right decision according to each situation.

And then I moved into Internal Medicine. My Internal Medicine rotation was at Al-Shifa Hospital. And for me, that was also an amazing rotation because, at that time, and because of the war, we missed two years of the residency program. So we did not have residents in level one and level two. So I was working with senior residents or we can say chief residents, in levels three and four. And those doctors, they are tired, exhausted, drained, okay? And they need someone like me, a junior doctor, just to take care of cases and to put all the load on me. And actually, I was really happy, because I wanted to see how to deal with medical patients in wartime. So for me, it was a unique experience.

Then, I continued into the Pediatric Rotation for the same reason. I really wanted to see what happened to patients presenting with non-surgical, only medical complaints during war. And actually, at first, I did not want to be exposed to more injuries. I don’t know, maybe because I’m really burned out. I was trying to avoid them. But unfortunately, this week is the last week of me dealing with non-surgical patients. The next six months, I will have to spend in surgical specialties.

So this is my experience. And my experience will also change once I move into surgical rotations at the beginning of August, so in one week.

AD: You mentioned doing a rotation at Al-Shifa Hospital. Of course, Al-Shifa was at the center of international news because of the Israeli attacks on the hospital in late 2023 and again in 2024. Can you talk about your work at the hospital, how it was impacted by Israeli attacks?

ZA: Well, I spent most of my rotations during medical school before the war at Al-Shifa Hospital. And for me, it was the one place where I had my first experiences. Like my first time taking history from a patient, first time meeting a patient as a future doctor, first time examining a patient, first time putting my hand on a patient’s body, first time stitching [a patient], first time putting a stethoscope on someone’s chest… I don’t know, it was my first for everything. First time being a surgeon’s assistant, first time dealing with records, first time ordering an investigation for some patients. First of everything. This is Al-Shifa, for me.

There were two Israeli invasions of Al-Shifa, which left the hospital non-functional. The first one was in November 2023, and the next one was in March 2024. The destruction  was so huge. The main two buildings were burned. They are still standing, but the most heartbreaking thing is that they are burned. They are black, they are no longer functional anymore, and they need removal. So they did not level the buildings to the ground, they just left them standing just to break our hearts. What is functional now – after the second invasion, they [the hospital] tried to repair what they could repair of these buildings. And what they could repair was what was the building of the outpatient clinics previously, prior to the war. The small building of outpatient clinics before the war is now the emergency room, recovery room, two operation rooms, the ICU and the CCU. And also we have one tent, and another thing called – I’m not sure – I have searched for it a lot in English, but I don’t know what the term is, we call it barracks. So it’s not a tent made of shelters. It’s made of metal. It’s called barracks.

So now we have the Al-Shifa outpatient clinic building, the barracks, and the tent. Recently,  very recently, they have repaired some floors of the obstetric and gynecology building. That building was also destroyed, but they tried to repair it in order to accept as many surgical patients as they could. It is only for inpatient surgical, mostly traumatic patients, in Gaza. It’s Al-Shifa on the ruins of the old Al-Shifa. So the patients in the barracks and tent are a mix of patients, surgical and medical. Some are for the surgical specialties, some for general surgery, vascular, orthopedic, urology, and other patients for internal medicine. So it is just all one group all mixed together, unfortunately.

The Ministry of Health rented a private hospital close to Al-Shifa, called Al-Helou Hospital. And this hospital is for Obstetrics and Gynecology, mainly. And there is a floor for the Internal Medicine Department. So when I had the internal medicine rotation, it was at Al-Shifa, but I was between Al-Shifa and Al-Helou. So I was spending my time between here and there. And the patients at Al-Shifa, the ones who are expected to have longer hospital stays, then are moved to Al-Helou. The medical staff have to spend days here and days there. It is kind of hard for patients because of every [medical routine] they have to do, they have to be moved by the ambulance. For example, if patients need follow-up chest x-rays, they have to go from Al-Helou to Al-Shifa because at Al-Helou Hospital they don’t have x-ray machines. And if they have to go through CT scans, all our patients at Al-Shifa who need CT scans, they have to go to another hospital like Al-Ahli Al-Arabi Hospital [also known as] Al-Ma’madani Hospital, to have their CT scans there.

Anything I can say about my work there? Well, let me tell you – for me, when I worked there, I worked as an intern doctor along with the medical team. I was just an observer of the horrible scenes. I was seeing the hundreds of injuries filling the ER, the volume of people, the unexpected unbelievable volume of people. And I was seeing my colleagues so exhausted and drained. Seeing that made me afraid. I did not want to be exposed to the same scenes. And for us, it was really hard, because just to know when there is a bombing, all the medical team, nurses, doctors, ER staff, the emergency doctors, they all have to be shifted to work along with the surgical team. Imagine [the entire] medical team, and the ER doctors and emergency nurses, all having to deal with [bombing] injuries. But any patient present with a medical complaint can be totally ignored or neglected because there is no emergency. No one will see them except if they first saw the doctor or the medical interns from the first moment. Otherwise, this patient will be missed because the scene is horrible, there’s no space to walk, no nurse will follow your orders, or will even help you take vital signs or help you get things like blood samples for investigation. So, working in the ER along with the medical team means you are working alone when there are injuries and injured patients in the emergency room. So that was my work.

Next week on Saturday, the first of August, I will be working alongside the surgical team at Al-Shifa. I am just so anxious. I don’t know. I don’t know if I will be able to do it or not. Like, it’s too much. I will send you a video just to see what the volume is like. There is no space to even breathe.

AD: Thank you for that. I’ll see about uploading the video to the website.

I wanted to ask you about hunger, and the way that Israel has been using starvation as a weapon of war against the people of Gaza. How has it affected your patients? How has it affected medical workers? Do you yourself have access to sufficient amounts of food and water?

ZA: I am currently doing pediatrics. And yes, I have seen a lot of patients complaining, like a lot of patients. Apart from patients, I am currently struggling with starvation. The words “I am hungry” are very common to hear nowadays between us colleagues. I used to hear “I’m tired,” “I want to take a rest,” “I can’t stand anymore,” “I just want a break,” “I want to sleep.” But never, never, never, never [had I ever] imagined in my life that one of my colleagues, all of us as colleagues, would repeat, “I am hungry, I am hungry, I am hungry.” I have heard “I am hungry” more than I… I don’t know, it’s just too much. This is for the medical staff, doctors, nurses, everyone I have worked with recently, they repeat “I am hungry,” even myself. So what about patients?

Of course, [because] I work in pediatrics, we mainly deal with malnutrition patients and they are affected and their bodies are affected. And unfortunately, I am saying that again and again, and I will always say it – The malnutrition [relief] projects, they all care about the patients from six months to five years. What about older children? And what about the younger babies? Yes, the younger babies need milk, the older children need supplements, but what about elderly patients? What about pregnant women? So, yeah, those are missed, completely missed in malnutrition projects. There is a Malnutrition Department, but as I’m telling you, all the funds and projects are coming to children between six months and five years old. And we are seeing older children who are suffering from malnutrition and we cannot do anything. We cannot even put their names [on a list] to benefit from supplements, because “there are no causes.” It is not in our hands.

We used to see the typical shape of malnutrition. We call it marasmus. This was [a common sight to see in] Palestine, even when there was no starvation either here in Gaza or in the West Bank. But nowadays in Gaza, we see kwashiorkor, which is also a form of malnutrition, but the patient presents with edema, which is when the body starts accumulating fluid, and this is a warning. This all should be a warning, an alert for all organizations and for everyone who cares about children, malnutrition, or starvation. But we all are still suffering.

Do I myself have adequate access [to food and water]? As I have told you before, I cannot say I do. Access to food is a day-by-day [thing], but I do not know if tomorrow I will have access to food or not. What about water? Yes, we access water, but [you can] be sure that it is not clean. Many, many of us are suffering from watery diarrhea because of the water [quality].

AD: Right. Now you’ve been active not only as a doctor and public health advocate, but also as a storyteller. You’ve been writing about the experience of Palestinian doctors and patients under the genocide. Tell us a little bit about that work.

ZA: Well, before [taking a] Social Medicine course, I had never imagined that I would enter the field of storytelling. During the Social Medicine course, I was telling everything in story [form]. Whenever my classmates, colleagues, and friends would ask me a question, my answer would be in the form of a story. It was not intended. It was just spontaneous, and they all encouraged me to take a further step to improve my storytelling skills. So I saw We Are Not Numbers, which is an association of writers that provides the opportunity to help activists with improving their skills in writing, and even in journalism, in general. So I was accepted to volunteer with them. I had sessions with them before the war, and I still have two sessions that I have not yet completed because of the war. I cannot say that I have that much experience in storytelling and in storywriting, I’m still learning. I have shared one public story or essay and two private ones in a conference.

Now I am a guest editor with Palestine in America Magazine, helping them with their medical editions. My job is mainly to help with ideas creation. I think this is all I can say about this right now. I cannot say more about it, because [some of those ideas] will be published very soon.

AD: Thank you so much, Dr. Alqudwa. It was a real pleasure speaking with you and الله يحميك. God keep you and the life-saving work that you and your colleagues do every day.