The graduation took place in front of the destroyed facade of the al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City on Thursday. It was a symbolic act of resilience as the doctors, calling themselves the “Humanity Cohort”, completed their Palestinian Board certifications under extraordinary circumstances after two years of Israel’s war.
The graduates had studied and sat for examinations while working nonstop inside Gaza’s hospitals during two years of starvation, displacement and genocide. Some were also injured, arrested or had family members killed, Al Jazeera reported.
Gaza Health Ministry official Youssef Abu al-Reish described the ceremony as graduation from “the womb of suffering, under bombardment, among rubble and rivers of blood”.
The ceremony included empty chairs displaying photographs of healthcare workers killed during the war.
Al-Shifa Medical Complex has been repeatedly targeted since Israel’s genocidal war began in October 2023.
A World Health Organization assessment conducted in early April 2024 found the hospital had been reduced to what WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described as “an empty shell with human graves”.
The hospital has since been partially renovated but still largely lies in ruins.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 70,942 Palestinians have been killed and 171,195 injured since 7 October 2023. Since a ceasefire was announced this October, 406 people have been killed and 1,118 injured, with the ministry noting that violations continue. An additional 653 bodies have been recovered from under rubble during this period.