'American Doctor' Exposes Brutality in Gaza Hospitals and Urges Accountability

At the opening of the documentary American Doctor, director Poh Si Teng initially refuses to film images of dead Palestinian children that one of the American physicians wants her to capture, worried that pixelation would be required and that it might strip the victims of dignity.

Jewish‑American doctor Mark Perlmutter challenges that hesitation, arguing that obscuring the images would erase crucial evidence.

"You're not dignifying them unless you let their memory, their bodies, tell the story of this trauma, of this genocide. You're not doing them a service by not showing them,"

"This is what my tax dollars did. That's what your tax dollars did. That's what my neighbor's tax dollars did. They have the right to know the truth. You have the responsibility, as I do, to tell the truth. You pixelate this, that's journalistic malpractice."

The film follows Perlmutter and two other U.S. physicians—one Palestinian‑American and one a non‑practising Zoroastrian—who volunteer in hospitals across the Gaza Strip. The camera records stark surgical scenes: severed limbs, open wounds and exhausted medical teams operating amid severe shortages of supplies and frequent power outages.

American Doctor also traces the trio's advocacy work: public testimony in Washington, interviews in Israeli and U.S. media, and efforts to document conditions on the ground. The documentary highlights logistical obstacles they face, including smuggling surgical scrubs and antibiotics across the border to circumvent the Israeli blockade and repeated last‑minute denials of entry by Israeli authorities.

The film documents risks faced by medical staff and journalists, including an August 2025 "double tap" strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in which emergency responders and reporters who rushed to the initial strike were killed by a second projectile. The documentary is dedicated to roughly 1,700 healthcare workers killed since October 2023.

Feroze Sidwha, one of the doctors featured, argues in the film that he has never observed tunnels under hospitals and that the presence of wounded fighters would not make medical facilities legitimate military targets. At the Sundance premiere he told AFP:

"I’m pretty sure the answer is 'no'. I just want to keep speaking out and letting people know they don't have to be an accessory to child murder. But we all are, right now."

The film situates these personal accounts within wider, contested claims about the conduct of the war. UN investigators have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza—a charge Israel rejects as "distorted and false" and says those allegations are motivated by antisemitism. Despite a fragile ceasefire that began in October last year, intermittent violence has continued, and humanitarian organizations report large numbers of civilian casualties, including children, while Reporters Without Borders says nearly 220 journalists have died since the start of the conflict.

The documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it opened conversations about the ethics of visual testimony, the responsibilities of foreign volunteers, and the limits of advocacy amid an ongoing war.