Remembering Dr. Hammam Alloh
“And if I go, who treats my patients? You think I went to medical school for 14 years so I can only think about my life and not my patients? … This is not the reason I became a doctor.”
Dr. Hammam Alloh was an internal medicine physician in Gaza City, killed on November 12 by an Israeli air strike on his home. He was a hero for the Palestinian people, survived by his widowed wife and three children, ages 5, 4, and 6 months.
For 14 years, he studied internal medicine and trained to become a nephrologist, returning to the Gaza Strip to serve his community. Dr. Hammam Alloh shared the dire conditions in which medical care was administered. Staff regularly suffered from a lack of vital medications, essential labs, and instruments critical to their work.
Dr. Hammam Alloh spoke of wanting to live to see a Palestine that was free and peaceful and in which all Palestinians, including Christians, Muslims and Jews, could live with dignity.
“We want to live freely like other people—to grow scientifically and economically, to walk in the street without fearing bombardments, to make plans. We want to be able to learn, think, grow, travel, dream—to feel like we are really human. Not to think only about meeting our basic needs.”
His dream must remain alive.
Scholarships for Palestinian Doctors
Dr. Hammam firmly believed in supporting the education of Palestinian physicians and the need for well-trained doctors serving their community in Gaza.
Our Honouring Dr. Hammam Scholarship will fund physicians and aspiring physicians to participate in Islamic Relief Canada’s Keys of Health program. This program brings Palestinian doctors to Canada for specialized training and fellowships. Upon completion, physicians return to Palestine, serving as leaders in healthcare improvement and providing world-class clinical care to their local communities.
Your support is a form of Sadaqah Jariyah (ongoing charity), a gift that will keep giving as their education will benefit communities and future generations!
Honour Dr. Hammam with us by supporting the education of Palestinian physicians and aspiring physicians.
What is the Keys of Health program?
Islamic Relief Canada’s Keys of Health program aims to train Palestinian doctors in Canada to serve as leaders in healthcare improvement and provide world-class clinical care when they return to Palestine.
Due to the pressing health needs, decades of aggression and the total siege on Gaza, Palestine is facing a shortage of adult subspecialty doctors. Working alongside doctors Tarek Loubani, Ben Thomson and Rand Askaland, Palestinian doctors are selected to complete a fully funded medical fellowship program at a Canadian university.
Each Palestine Keys for Health fellowship lasts 2 to 3 years, depending on the subspecialty program. Upon completing their program, these exceptional physicians return to their region in Palestine, providing world-class clinical care locally.
Attacks on Hospitals and Healthcare Personnel in Gaza Must Stop
Hospitals in Gaza are on the verge of total shutdown as they run out of life-saving supplies amid unlawful and inhumane bombardment by the Israeli military.
Since October 7, WHO has recorded 137 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza, resulting in 521 people being killed and 686 injuries. At least 190 healthcare workers have been killed in this period.
Israel has ordered all hospitals that remain open in northern Gaza to evacuate patients, but doctors at Al Shifa hospital share that they have come under attack while attempting to leave:
“We need to evacuate many patients. We succeeded in evacuating some patients but for others the Israeli army attacked them. It was not safe to transport any patients from the hospital to other places.”
Doctors at al-Rantisi children’s hospital say they are now surrounded by military tanks, while doctors at Al Awda hospital, the only provider of maternity services in northern Gaza, say they are on the verge of shutting down. Al Quds hospital in Gaza City shut down their surgical ward, oxygen generation plant, and MRI ward due to the lack of fuel.
The targeting of hospitals and healthcare personnel is egregious and prohibited under international humanitarian law. Healthcare personnel in Gaza have put aside their personal needs to be at the forefront of providing medical care and comfort to their patients.
Islamic Relief joins UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO to call for an immediate end to attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza.
