Documentary – How Israel Destroyed Al Shifa Hospital?

CrossFireArabia
Culture
August 25, 2024

A documentary recounting Israel’s harrowing siege on Gaza’s largest health complex, Al-Shifa Hospital, killing some 170 Palestinians, premiered on Saturday in Istanbul.

Co-produced by Al Jazeera 360 and the On the Record for Humanity initiative, the premiere of Al-Shifa Hospital – 14 Days of Horror was held at the Lutfi Kirdar International Convention and Exhibition Center, with Anadolu as the global communications partner.

A Palestinian doctor highlights the aftermath of Israeli occupation at Al-Shifa Hospital.
It was also reported that more than 400 were killed including children, women, medical staff and patients. pic.twitter.com/N6bwkfNGwG
— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws) April 1, 2024

The premiere, attended by Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc, Anadolu Agency Editor-in-Chief Yusuf Ozhan, Anadolu Publications and Productions Coordinator Oguz Karakas, and other important media figures, began with an exhibit of photographs taken by Anadolu photojournalists who have been documenting the genocide in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.

‘Palestine has won this war psychologically’

At the opening, Ihsan Aktas, one of the founders of On the Record for Humanity, said they founded the initiative to raise global awareness of Palestine following the Israeli attacks that began last year.

He added: “At this point, Palestine has won this war psychologically. Today, the number of Palestinian flags waving around the world tops the number of American and Israeli flags.”

Aktas praised news agencies like Anadolu and Al Jazeera for exposing Israel’s war crimes and highlighted the strong support from the Turkish public and media for the documentary.

He stressed Anadolu’s crucial role in spotlighting the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, commending CEO Serdar Karagoz and Tunc for their essential support in amplifying their message.

Reminder to world to hold perpetrators accountable

Producer Samhy Mostafa said: “Al Jazeera 360 is a platform that brings all of Al Jazeera’s programs together under one roof, offering access to Al Jazeera’s vast library.”

What's left of Al-Shifa hospital complex after Zs retreat. Total destruction and hundreds of dead bodies of men, women and children executed pic.twitter.com/dCENwvO9qU
— Dr. Mustafa Elmasri (@Gaza_Psych) April 1, 2024

“It provides serious and positive media content that reflects and presents the truth as it is, continuing to bypass restrictions imposed by some social media platforms,” he added.

He also said: “This documentary exposes the suffering at Al-Shifa Hospital and aims to remind the world of the need to confront injustice and hold perpetrators accountable.”

After opening speeches, the documentary Al-Shifa Hospital – 14 Days of Horror was screened.

The premiere concluded with a panel moderated by journalist Enes Yalman, featuring director Obada Al Baghdadi, Gaza doctor Fadia Malhis, Al Jazeera journalist Ibrahim Saber, Academic Garbage Collection Center Secretary General Bekir Cantemir, and Haberturk TV General Manager Mehmet Akif Ersoy.

Al-Shifa Hospital siege

On the morning of March 18, Israeli forces raided Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, where more than 7,000 patients and displaced Palestinians had taken refuge.

During the raid and subsequent siege, more than 800 Palestinians were detained and interrogated by Israeli forces, and over 170 were killed.

After the Israeli army withdrew, mass graves containing burned human remains were discovered.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

"We give him painkillers so that he doesn't feel it and he (passes) in peace…and then he goes into the tent where we gathered the corpses"

Dr. Basel Abu Amru shares the horrific challenges he and other medical workers faced at Al-Shifa hospital during the Israeli aggression. pic.twitter.com/jkcrLU2aeU
— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) January 3, 2024

The onslaught has resulted in over 40,000 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and over 93,000 injuries, according to local health authorities.

The ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

Culture

Beirut Weeps For a Poet

CrossFireArabia
April 16, 2026

Lebanon mourns Khatoun Salma, a Lebanese national poet who was killed along with her husband in an Israeli airstrike that targeted their home in the Tallet al-Khayat neighborhood of Beirut Wednesday, 8 April.

Rasha al-Amir, publisher of Dar al-Jadeed, announced that the bodies of Khatoun and her husband were recovered from the rubble, Thursday morning.

Lebanese journalist Maha Salma also mourned her sister Khatoun on her Instagram account, writing: “My dear sister is in God’s care. May God grant me patience in the pain of her loss and the burning of my heart and soul.”

Poet and playwright Yahya Jaber wrote a tribute to Khatoun on Facebook, saying: “Yesterday, the Israeli airstrike cut down a poet with its sharp scissors, a poet of delicate Arabic.” Under the rubble, the conjunction “waw,” the plural “waw,” the feminine plural “nun,” the feminine suffix “ta,” the definite article “al-“: a massacre of language at the hands of language. Jaber attached a picture of the building where Khatoun lived to his post, saying:

“Here is the Khayat Hill building, and here on one of these balconies, we used to stay up late with Khatoun and her husband, Muhammad Karsht, in the late 198s, spinning yarns of laughter and sewing memories. We would recite poetry and remember our city, Tyre, and love Beirut, the capital.”

Lebanese poet Majida Dagher wrote on her Facebook page in mourning for Khatoun: “Under the rubble of her house in Khayat Hill, they found a poet lying among her shattered rhymes. The death of a poet in an airstrike on Beirut makes you feel that war is very, very close. The sound of bones breaking has become louder, and the smell of blood deeper.

Salma fell from the heights of poetry before she could bid farewell to ‘the last inhabitant of the moon.'” She thought Beirut was her tent, Beirut the roof of her poem, where she would hide, “embracing a woman waiting” for the dust to settle. But the dust became the tent of a new Beirut, a Beirut weeping, broken, martyred.

Salma, who studied Arabic literature at the American University of Beirut, published two collections of poetry, “I Embraced a Woman Waiting” in 2009 and “The Last Inhabitants of the Moon” in 2012, both with the Lebanese publishing house Dar Al-Jadeed. She first gained recognition in the 1970s, during her secondary school years, when she won a poetry prize. Later, at the beginning of this century, she became known in cultural circles for her relatively small but distinguished poetic output and her academic pursuits, which included studies in Sufism and Sufi mystics.

She combined profound knowledge with poetic sensitivity. She left her mark on the Lebanese cultural scene with a unique poetic voice, manifested in her literary works that carried the pain of humanity, exile, and memory. With her tragic passing, Lebanon loses a literary and human figure who wrote of the wound in a language that resembled nothing but truth.

Culture

Al Bahri: The Man Who Set Palestinian Theater

CrossFireArabia
March 14, 2026

He is a playwright and author of 12 plays, nearly 20 novels, and numerous translations. Jamil Habib Afara (al-Bahri) was known as the “Father of Theater.” He was born in 1895 in Haifa and his family name dates back to the mid-18th century, as his ancestor owned a merchant fleet that sailed the Mediterranean between Haifa, Acre, and Tripoli. This is where his family name originated.

He showed early interest in literature and writing. He and his brother, Hanna, were keen to revitalize the literary and intellectual scene in Haifa, establishing the National Library there in 1922. He first published the “Zahrat al-Jamil” (The Beautiful Flower) and later “al-Zahra” (The Flower) which was initially a weekly publication that later became a bi-weekly and continued publication for about nine months after his death in 1931. His last piece was

a journalistic investigation into the execution of the three martyrs: Muhammad Jamjoum, Fuad Hijazi, and Ata al-Zeer, in the city of Acre in 1930. He dedicated his time and his newspaper that day to the souls of these martyrs, leading with: “The terrible hour in Haifa and all of Palestine: Let us commemorate those who gave their lives for the homeland.” A large funeral was held for him, and poems and eulogies were recited and published in the Palestinian press, such as the “Al-Karmel” and “Falastin,” newspapers.

The Department of Culture of the Palestine Liberation Organization posthumously awarded him the Jerusalem Medal for Culture and Arts in 1990, and the Palestinian Ministry of Culture reprinted his first book, “The History of Haifa,” in 2022.

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Documentary – How Israel Destroyed Al Shifa Hospital?

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