'We don't know if she's alive or dead,' says husband of doctor detained in Gaza hospital

Update: A day afterthis story was published,Dr. Tareq Al-Daghma reached out to CBC Radio to say he has received a voicemail from his wife,Dr. Tareq Al-Daghma, who is alive, and still being detained by Israeli soldiers at Nasser Hospital in Gaza.Original story below:

As It Happens7:32'We don't know if she's alive or dead,' says husband of doctor detained in Gaza hospital

Dr. Tareq Al-Daghma hasn't heard from his wife in three days.

Al-Daghma is a pediatric ICU doctor at Nasser Hospital, which was raided last week by Israeli forces.

He fled to Egypt in late December with his 18-year-old daughter. But his wife, obstetrician Dr. Amira Al-Assouli, stayed behind to care for her ailing mother, and her patients at Nasser.

"I tried to convince her to leave with me, but she was reluctant and she refused," Al-Daghma told As It Happens guest host Peter Armstrong. "We don't know if she's alive or dead."

Israel has detained 70 staff and volunteers working at Nasser, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it and its partners have transferred 32 critical patients, including two children, out of Nasser Hospital, but that an estimated 130 sick and injured patients and at least 15 doctors and nurses remain inside.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF)said it could not comment on Al-Assouli's whereabouts without heridentity card number.Al-Daghmasaid he did not feel comfortable providing personal information about his wife to the IDF.

Israel says hospital a military base

Israel has described the incursionon Nasser as a precision operation conducted by special forces aimed at recovering the bodies of Israeli hostages.

It said Hamas had turned the hospital "into a military base," echoing its rationale forraidingGaza's Al-Shifa hospitalin November.

Hamas has denied usinghospitals, and calledIsrael's latest claims about Nasser"lies."

Nasser Hospital was the biggest hospital still operating in Gaza more than four months into the latest war, which began when fighters from Hamas raided Israeli townson Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has since killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, health authorities said.

IDF soldiers stormed Nasser on Thursday and saidthey had detained hundreds of militants hiding there, with some posing as hospital staff. Troops said they found large quantities of weapons and vehicles linked to the Oct. 7 attack inside.

Al-Daghma, who lived in the hospital for 85 days with his daughter before they fled Gaza on Dec. 30, says it's possible there were militants in and around the hospital, as hundreds people displaced by the war had taken shelter there.

"Nobody is asking, 'Where are you from? Do you belong to a militant group?'" he said.

Missing doctor hailed as hero

He says he worries his wife may have been targeted because a recent video of her running to help an injured patient as gunfire rang out around her was widely shared on social media.

"Everybody was talking about her the past few days, and everybody was showing her [as] a hero doctor while she was doing what is her belief," her husband said.

"We were afraid that because of this scene and this multimedia, which had gone viral, that she's going to be the target for the Israeli army."

He's also worried about his colleagues, who he suspects may have been detained and questioned abouttreating Israeli hostages. The IDF claims to have found boxes of medicine inside Nasser with the names of hostages on them.

"I suspect many prisoners were brought to the hospital. This is a major hospital in the South. And maybe they even underwent surgical procedures to save their lives," Al-Daghma said."The doctors really have nothing to be blamed for."

He says he never treated any hostages at the hospital, but would not have hesitated to do so if asked.

"We don't discriminate in treating patients. I don't ask whether this patient is Muslim, Christian or Jewish," he said. "We are physicians. We have sworn our oath to treat any human being."

Terrifying evacuation in dark of night

Those who left the hospital Thursday describe fleeing in panic in the dead of night as gunfire rang out around them, passing corpses along the way.

"Smoke was everywhere, it was like doomsday, people running everywhere," said Dr. Ahmed al-Mughraby, head of the plastic surgery department, who fled with his wife and children.

He said he and his family had left the hospital with three patients and some staff members but one, a department nurse, was stopped.

"They made him take off all his clothes so he was naked andthey took him to detention. I could hear his screams," he said.

Al-Daghma says he's also heard stories of his colleagues being stripped naked and mistreated. In an emailed statement, the IDF called these allegations "baseless."

Hakeem Salem Hussein Baraka said the orthopaedic department, where he had been working as a volunteer, was completelydestroyed. He says hesaw a patient cut in two by anexplosion, and a drone fire at medical staff.

Asked during a news briefing on Tuesday whether there was any gunfire or combat within the hospital, IDF Col.Moshe Tetrosaid:"No."

Israel has said it made efforts ensure Nasser could keep functioning.But the WHOcalled the damage to the hospital and surrounding area "indescribable."

"Nasser Hospital has no electricity or running water, and medical waste and garbage are creating a breeding ground for disease," WHO said in a written statement. "The area was surrounded by burnt and destroyed buildings, heavy layers of debris, with no stretch of intact road."

It said WHO staff weretwice denied access to the hospital, "causing delays in urgently needed patient referral."

"WHO repeats its calls for the protection of patients, health workers, health infrastructure, and civilians," the organization said. "Hospitals must not be militarized, misused, or attacked."

WATCH | WHO evacuates people from Nasser Hospital:

'Worst situation': WHO works to get patients out of Khan Younis hospital

8 months ago

Duration 0:48

This video supplied by the World Health Organization shows WHO staff, along with medical staff at the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza, working Monday to get critically ill patients out of the hospital. The head of the WHO says the hospital is facing an 'acute shortage' of food, basic medical supplies and oxygen.

Al-Daghma says that when he last spoke to his wife, Israeli soldiers were moving her and her colleagues from one part of the hospital to another. He hasn't heard from her since.

"She is detained against her will inside the hospital," he said. "I don't know what's the fate of my wife, along with the remaining medical personnel."

He says he left Gaza for Egypt, where he holds citizenship, because he feared he would be arrested or worse, and didn't know what would become of his daughter if something happened to him.

"The decision to leave the hospital was very difficult and painful," he said. "I have seen many colleagues of mine, who are not Hamas, taken away and nobody knows if they are alive now or dead."

But he says his wife, Al-Assouli, came out of retirement to volunteer her services atNasser, where she was only consultant obstetrician left on staff.

"She said, 'I cannot leave. The hospital is full of cases,'' he said. "Pray for my wife."