‘American Doctor’ shows Israeli brutality in Gaza

LifestyleMust Read'American Doctor' shows Israeli brutality in GazaBy AFP -Aug 19, 2026Add ARY News on GoogleAAResizeLos Angeles: Mark Perlmutter has treated patients hit by natural disaster and conflicts across 30 countries, including in his native United States. Yet, nothing prepared him for the horrors he would witness under Israeli bombardment. “Just our first week in Gaza was worse than all of my experiences combined, ” the orthopedic surgeon told AFP of deployments that included the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in New York, Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The suffering Perlmutter and his colleagues have seen in Gaza hospitals since Israel launched its war after the October 2023 Hamas attack forms the core of “American Doctor,” a documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and arrives in select US theaters this Friday. In her documentary debut, director Poh Si Teng makes no attempt to explain the rights or wrongs of the conflict itself, focusing instead on the work in Gaza of three American doctors from different backgrounds. Perlmutter is Jewish; Thaer Ahmad is a Muslim of Palestinian descent; and Feroze Sidhwa is the son of Zoroastrian parents. “People feel like they have to have a PhD in this topic to understand it, or to discuss it sensibly,” Sidhwa told AFP. “The question isn’t how well you know Arab-Israeli history. The question is: Do you or do you not support the murder of children? Do you or do you not support the torture of physicians? Do you or do you not support the bombing of hospitals?” – Hitting hospitals – The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 killed 1,221 people. Israel’s military response has resulted in more than 73,300 deaths in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, whose figures the United Nations considers reliable. Israel acknowledges it has intentionally hit medical facilities, but says it is targeting Hamas fighters using tunnels underneath those hospital...