Gazan Doctor, a Husband, a Father, and a Grandfather Dr. Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj: "Injustice will one day vanish, and we will remain here"

The existence of land and geography, independent of human life, is debatable and filled with uncertainty. It is humans who give meaning to the land. It is people who fill an empty, barren space with meaning, transform it into a dense, deeply rooted existence—who turn it into a home, a homeland, and even an ideal worth dying for. When we speak of land, in reality, we are speaking of people. Of the essential values that make human existence possible are as for example, the motherhood, childood, love, home, morality, justice, being good, and living freely under the sky and upon the earth.
The land knows nothing of all these abstractions. It is the human beings ,who stubbornly rooting themselves in the soil, who cultivate the land with tireless dedication and toil, who enrich it with meaning and ideals. Based on this act, the land itself gains new forms and details different from the nature: hills are etched with memories rooted in millennia, mountains and valleys become living recollections within human imagination, and borders are stained with martyr's blood, marked by sorrow and sanctity.

Imagine a man who has lost everything he held, his dear family, his home, his friends, everything he valued. A man who, despite facing unimaginable oppression from a very young age, never lost his humanity even after losing his children, relatives, and loved ones to barbarism. A man who stood strong against all odds, managed to preserved his humanity, striving to do his utmost for his people and his homeland.

Dr. Abdullatif Al Haj, affectionately called Abu Al-Majd after his first son who was martyred recently during the genocide war on Gaza. Dr. Abdullatif was born in December 1964 in Nuseirat Refugee Camp to which the Israeli forces forcibly displaced his family from their ancestral small village that is called Kawkaba during Al Nakba in 1948. However, this harsh reality has painfully taught Abu Al-Majd, even as a child, that survival would demand resistance and struggle. What else could one do when faced with a ruthless and homeless mob that had come to seize one's home!?

Abu Al-Majd completed his primary and secondary education at UNRWA schools within the Nuseirat camp and graduated from Khalid bin Al-Walid High School in 1982. Filled with a deep desire to help others from an early age, he decided to study medicine in the medical school. To achieve this, he traveled to Yemen and enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at Aden University. After years of rigorous and dedicated study, he graduated as a doctor in 1989.

Aware of his duty as both a doctor and a Palestinian citizen amid his people's suffering, he returned to Gaza during the First Intifada to serve his community. He immediately took on the role of coordinator at the Union of Health Care Committees to support public access to healthcare. Simultaneously, he served as a surgical assistant at the Arab Hospital in Gaza until 1995. Despite the heavy workload, Dr. Al-Majd never stopped advancing his expertise. He began a residency training program  in general surgery at Al-Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem in 1995 and became a board-certified general surgeon in 2000. Shortly after that , he was appointed as the  General Director of the European Gaza Hospital, where he had been practicing as a specialist at the same tme. Throughout his career, he remained deeply committed to academic advancement. In 2003, after undergoing specialized surgical training in Japan, he began lecturing at the Faculty of Medicines of Al-Quds and Islamic Universities in Gaza. In the meantime, he completed a master’s degree in Health Policy and Management at Al-Quds University aiming at further strengthening his professional skills.

In one of his statements, Dr. Al-Majd said: "The exiles, wars, and hardships I faced throughout my life have never defeated me. As a doctor, I continue to serve my people, improve healthcare services, and help train future doctors. Because I know that every surgery, every healed patient, every educated doctor is a step forward for Palestine’s future."

Dr. Abdullatif Mohammed Alhaj

As a surgery specialist, Dr. Abu Al-Majd served for many years as Chief Medical Director at the European Gaza Hospital and, during the Gaza genocide he as holding the post of the Deputy Undersecretary at the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. Under unimaginably challenging conditions, brought by the relentless Israeli attacks, he moved tirelessly between hospitals, striving to keep emergency services operational. With his administrative expertise and authority, he worked to enhance the infrastructures of the hospitals and as a surgeon to often performed interventions on emergency cases, providing lifesaving treatments for a lot of patients.

In a podcast appearance, Dr. Abu Al-Majd spoke “not only of the overwhelming grief of witnessing endless streams of martyred and wounded civilians—most of them innocent women and children—but also of a haunting fear shared by all Gaza's healthcare workers: the terror of recognizing a family member among the lifeless bodies brought in.”

Dr. Abu Al-Majd's own family lived in Nuseirat Camp, which Israeli forces had misleadingly declared a "safe zone." In the meantime, his house became a refuge for 58 relatives who had been displaced under threat. On November 21, 2023, his worst fear came true. Exhausted from long shifts, while resting at the Nasser Medical Complex, he was urgently called to Al-Aqsa Hospital by a colleague informing that  his house had been bombed with an airstrike. In the normal flow of life, a child bids farewell to their parents or grandparents after a long, full life. However, Dr. Abu Al-Majd was forced to bid farewell to his eldest son Majd, who died cradling his 13-month-old daughter Sara in his bloodied arms. Majd's wife, the mother of baby Sara, also perished. Dr. Abu Al-Majd’s eldest daughter Dima[1]—an employee at the World Health Organization[2]—was killed along with her husband and their five-month-old baby.[3] His youngest son Omar, a high school senior who aspired to follow his father’s footsteps and become a doctor, was also martyred!

Of the 58 family members taking shelter in the house—this is not a soulless number, each a real person with dreams and vibrant lives—only seven were pulled from the rubble, injured. Fifty-one were massacred. Among the survivors there were Sara’s two-week-old sibling who had a severe head injury, Sara’s other brother Abdurrahman who had several fractures in his hip, Dr. Abu Al-Majd’s wife Aya Alhaj (Umm Almajd) and their youngest daughter Lama. In a deliberate, planned and sudden attack of Israel, whole family was brutally ripped away from life!

Commenting on the attack, Dr. Abu Al-Majd said: "While the world debates whether the atrocities in Gaza constitute genocide, the Israeli army’s deliberate decision to wipe out a house sheltering 58 innocent souls—23 of them children, 15 women—is the very definition of a genocide."[4]

Sons of Dr. Abdullatif Majd, Omar (Qassam) and his grandkids Sara and Abdulrahman

Shortly, after burying his loved ones, a journalist asked Dr Abu Al-Majd, if he would continue his work in healthcare. Without hesitation, he replied: "Of course. Zionism and injustice will eventually disappear, and we will remain here."

Despite the profound loss, Dr. Abu Al-Majd remained steadfast in his mission on healthcare. He dedicated himself to healthcare studies. He saw healthcare not only as a refuge but as a lifeline for his people and himself.

When faced with the responsibility of caring for his critically injured grandchildren Aya and Abdulrahman, he made the painful decision to accompany them out of Gaza for medical treatment—a heartbreaking choice but, he saw as his sacred duty as a grandfather and a father figure even if it’s so hard to leave his homeland.

Though he left Gaza physically, he carried it within him everywhere he goes. In truth, Gaza never left him, nor he left Gaza. Wherever he went, he continued to serve his people, raising awareness about the catastrophic state of Gaza’s healthcare system, analyzing critical medical needs  and sharing these urgent realities through media appearances, high-level meetings, and international conferences. His unwavering sense of duty towards his land and people remains unbroken despite the unimaginable losses, and he vows to continue until his last breath.

Dr. Abu Al-Majd, through his tireless efforts that fills every moment of his life, remains a source of true inspiration for his patients and students. The pain and resilience etched into his life have endowed him with profound wisdom. A student once described his impact: "In the short time I spent with Dr. Abu Al-Majd in a shelter for wounded Gazans, I witnessed firsthand his unshakable commitment to human values, science, and our homeland. No matter the hour, you would find him always ready to consult on medical cases. Seeing him asleep in the next room, still in his surgical gown, spoke volumes about his deep humanity, his bond to medicine, and his eternal loyalty to Gaza. At a time when the genocide had stripped away every branch I could cling to, Dr. Abu Al-Majd rekindled in me a fierce hope and a reason to live. Knowing him means witnessing his inspiring personality and  the deep passion for life he radiates—and his never ending drive to pass it on to others. Meeting Dr. Abu Al-Majd helped me survive the crushing despair of genocide and embrace life once again."

This is how land becomes homeland. The ruins of the house where Majd lay shattered with his beloved Sara in his lap, the ground blessed with Dima's blood and her five month old baby's innocence—this is sacred ground. The ones who chunk up fire to conspire on the earth and murder babies keep assuming they would make a land home with tons of bombs and fabricated myths while Dima, Majd, and tens of thousands like them, with their blood, re-root themselves in the earth, filling it once again with meaning, love, ethics, and ideals.

Dr. Abdullatif Alhaj is one of the enduring symbols of humanity’s fierce resistance against corruption and destruction. As a grieving father, loving grandfather, compassionate teacher, and skilled doctor, Dr. Abu Al-Majd will continue to inspire our Gaza—and the world—for generations to come.

I would like to thank medical students Ahmed Maher Abukhatro, Kerem Huseyni, Sudenaz Coskun and journalist-author Mustafa Ekici for their contributions.