Palestinian doctors graduate in ruins of Gaza’s destroyed al-Shifa Hospital
Doctors attend a graduation ceremony at al-Shifa Hospital, honouring 168 physicians who received specialist certificates, 25 December 2025
Faisal Ali and News Agencies report in Al Jazeera on 26 December 2025:
A cohort of 168 Palestinian doctors have received their advanced medical certifications in Gaza amid the rubble of what was once the Palestinian territory’s largest hospital.
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.
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”. Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya, al-Shifa’s medical director, said Israel sought to destroy Palestine’s human capital throughout its attacks on healthcare facilities, “but it failed in that”.
Dr Ahmed Basil, one of the graduates, said earning advanced degrees in the most difficult of times inside a destroyed building sent a message that Palestinians love life and remain committed to scientific advancement.
The ceremony included empty chairs displaying photographs of healthcare workers killed during the war.
‘An empty shell with human graves’
Al-Shifa Medical Complex has been repeatedly targeted since Israel’s genocidal war began in October 2023.