In a city still trembling from destruction, Gaza’s exhausted health workers are preparing to receive nearly 1,900 freed prisoners as part of the current ceasefire agreement. Dr Munir Al-Barsh, Director-General of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, said medical teams stand ready at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis to conduct urgent physical and psychological assessments for those returning from years of harsh detention. Many, he warned, are suffering from severe illnesses brought on by neglect and abuse.

The Ministry has appealed for the inclusion of two detained Palestinian doctors, Hossam Abu Safia and Marwan Al-Hams, in the exchange, along with the return of the bodies of healthcare workers killed during the genocidal war. Despite a catastrophic shortage of medicines, hospitals plan to provide immediate treatment to the released prisoners, many of whom bear visible and invisible scars. Al-Barsh described Gaza’s healthcare system as “on the edge of collapse”, with thousands of patients still awaiting evacuation for life-saving treatment abroad.

The scale of devastation remains staggering: entire hospitals reduced to rubble, thousands of medical and humanitarian workers killed, and 90% of civilian infrastructure obliterated. Over two million Palestinians have been displaced, and more than 77,000 lives lost or unaccounted for. Amid this ruin, Gaza’s doctors continue their work with little more than determination and faith, treating the wounded while waiting for the world to remember that behind every statistic lies a human being still fighting to live.