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Diary of a Young Doctor: Notes from the genocide in Gaza
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.
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Published November 8, 2025
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November 29, 2025
Diary of a Young Doctor: Notes From the Genocide in Gaza by Ezzideen Shehab
The first publication from Readers and Writers Against the Genocide, this diary is a searing firsthand account by a practicing doctor of life under genocide. Written in a painfully-poetic voice of witness, the book documents day-by-day, month-by-month, the unfolding horrors inflicted on Palestinians by the settler-colonial, apartheid, genocidal state of Israel—an account that mainstream media has too often rendered invisible in the name of “impartiality” but can and should we ever be impartial to genocide?
Dr. Shehab brings us intimate, unforgettable stories: a man in Jabalia, the sole survivor of his family, who refuses to abandon the ruins of his home and the remains of his loved ones, only to later lose even his makeshift tent to fire; Dr. Mahmoud Assaf, a scholar forced to burn his treasured books to feed his children; a woman carrying her children across rubble, offering roots from her farm as a gesture of hope after seeking medicine for her pain.
This is more than a chronicle of genocide—it is a record of endurance, moral courage, and the unbroken humanity of a people under siege, enforced displacement, ethnic cleaning and genocide. Dr. Shehab’s diary demands the world bear witness, holding silence and neutrality accountable, and reminds readers that even under genocide, acts of care and hope persist.
The first publication from Readers and Writers Against the Genocide, this diary is a searing firsthand account by a practicing doctor of life under genocide. Written in a painfully-poetic voice of witness, the book documents day-by-day, month-by-month, the unfolding horrors inflicted on Palestinians by the settler-colonial, apartheid, genocidal state of Israel—an account that mainstream media has too often rendered invisible in the name of “impartiality” but can and should we ever be impartial to genocide?
Dr. Shehab brings us intimate, unforgettable stories: a man in Jabalia, the sole survivor of his family, who refuses to abandon the ruins of his home and the remains of his loved ones, only to later lose even his makeshift tent to fire; Dr. Mahmoud Assaf, a scholar forced to burn his treasured books to feed his children; a woman carrying her children across rubble, offering roots from her farm as a gesture of hope after seeking medicine for her pain.
This is more than a chronicle of genocide—it is a record of endurance, moral courage, and the unbroken humanity of a people under siege, enforced displacement, ethnic cleaning and genocide. Dr. Shehab’s diary demands the world bear witness, holding silence and neutrality accountable, and reminds readers that even under genocide, acts of care and hope persist.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews