American Doctors Reveal Horrors in Gaza Caused by War
The horrors of the Gaza war have been revealed by three American doctors who served in hospitals in the Palestinian enclave. Their experiences are captured in a documentary film titled ‘American Doctor’.
One of them is Mark Perlmutter, a Jewish American doctor with experience treating victims of natural disasters and conflicts in 30 countries, including Israel. Yet nothing could have prepared Perlmutter for the horrors he witnessed firsthand amid Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
The suffering Perlmutter and his fellow doctors witnessed in Gaza hospitals since Israel launched its wave of attacks against Hamas in October 2023, as reported by AFP on Wednesday (19/8/2026), forms the core of the documentary.
‘American Doctor’ premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will begin screening in selected cinemas in the United States on Friday (21/8).
Director Poh Si Teng, who previously worked as a visual journalist for AFP and various other media outlets, does not attempt to address the rights or wrongs of the conflict, but instead focuses on the work of three American doctors from different backgrounds.
Perlmutter is Jewish, Thaer Ahmad is a Muslim of Palestinian descent, and Feroze Sidhwa is the child of Zoroastrian parents.
Deciding what to show on screen proved a particular challenge for Teng. She said she wanted to convey ‘the truth effectively’ about Gaza.
The documentary stems from that dilemma, when Teng felt that showing photographs of dead children would violate their dignity. Perlmutter argued that their duty was to show the American people what their tax money had funded.
‘It was Israel who stripped them of their dignity,’ Perlmutter said. ‘You do not honour their dignity if you do not allow their memories and their bodies to tell the story of this trauma and genocide,’ he told Teng.
For the three American doctors, the need to constantly remind people of the ‘urgency’ of the situation in Gaza in media interviews or meetings with members of Congress has become frustrating.
Teng herself acknowledged that she often faces rejection, and that it is sometimes difficult to secure funding for her project because donors are reluctant to provide cash for a project that shows the damage caused by US-funded Israeli munitions.
However, Teng feels the moment is shifting towards change, and she hopes ‘American Doctor’ can further alter that narrative.
Perlmutter expressed a similar hope. ‘An avalanche of truth begins with a snowflake,’ the Jewish doctor remarked.