‘American Doctor’ Team Condemns Israeli Bombing That Killed Documentary Surgeon: ‘An Unforgivable Crime’

Watermelon Pictures “unequivocally condemned” an Israeli attack on a Gaza hospital Wednesday, which killed one of the subjects of the acclaimed documentary “American Doctor,” Dr. Rizk Abu Shaaira. The Wednesday airstrike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis killed six people, including the surgeon, according to Reuters. “Hospitals are places of healing, not targets of war,” wrote Hamza Ali, co-founder of Watermelon Pictures. “Dr. Abu Shaaira was among the extraordinary medical professionals whose courage and humanity we sought to honor through ‘American Doctor.’ His death is devastating and a painful reminder that the crisis documented in our film continues,” Poh Si Teng, director of the documentary wrote. “Those who dedicate their lives to saving others deserve protection, not violence.” “American Doctor” led the Cinema Eye Honors nominations earlier Thursday. “Operating with another surgeon is an intimate partnership. You learn their cadence, their strengths and weaknesses, and even glimpse their confidences and fears,” Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who was featured alongside Dr. Shaaira said. “Dr. Rizk Abu Shaaira and I performed a complex surgery on a man with shrapnel injuries, while Dr. Mohammed Odainy and I operated on a teenager after an American-made bomb tore a hole in his abdominal aorta. Remarkably, the child lived. These two men were my friends, colleagues and an inspiration. Now Dr. Rizk is dead and Dr. Mohammed is fighting for his life. It was an unforgivable crime.” More to come…