GAZA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Fire has returned to the spotlight after winning the 2026 BAFTA Television Award for Best Current Affairs Film, one of the most prestigious international television honors.
Work on the film began in late 2023 after the production team contacted Dr. Tanya Haj Hassan, who shared testimonies and stories about doctors and paramedics who disappeared after being taken by Israeli occupation soldiers to unknown locations inside Gaza, according to the film’s director Karim Shah, in an interview with Al Jazeera.
Shah said the project initially focused on documenting the fate of missing medical workers before gradually expanding as events in Gaza escalated. He explained that the film started as an attempt to trace doctors and paramedics who vanished during the war, but ultimately became a record of genocide, referring to the scale of testimonies and evidence gathered during the genocidal war on Gaza.
He revealed that although the film was commissioned and funded by the BBC, the broadcaster delayed airing it for months and ultimately did not broadcast it. Shah said the BBC began retreating from the project once the full scope of the documentary became clear, before it was eventually aired last year on the UK’s Channel 4.
Shah said he was not surprised by the strong reaction from British audiences, noting that many of the scenes shown in the film had already been seen daily on people’s phones and through news coverage. However, he stressed that there was a need for a documentary capable of connecting those scattered images and placing them within a coherent narrative.
On the artistic side, Shah said the team was determined not to create a film told solely through the perspective of foreign journalists, but rather one produced in partnership with Palestinian journalists. He highlighted the involvement of journalists Jaber Badwan and Osama Al-Ashi from the earliest stages of production.
He added that Palestinian medical workers were not merely sources of information, but a personal source of inspiration, while researchers, paramedics, and organizations monitoring Gaza’s collapsing healthcare sector also contributed testimonies and evidence to the project.
During the BAFTA award ceremony, investigative journalist Ramita Navai sparked controversy when she stated that Israel had targeted hospitals and killed large numbers of medical personnel, adding that despite being funded by the BBC, the film had still not been aired by the broadcaster.
Navai said the filmmakers refused attempts “to silence them or censor the documentary,” referring to the controversy surrounding the film’s screening in Britain.
Speaking about the significance of winning the award, Shah said the recognition restored some of his faith in the media industry, which he believes has become increasingly marked by bias and division in recent years.
Despite the documentary’s success, Shah stressed that no film could fully capture the scale of Gaza’s catastrophe, saying, “One single day inside a hospital in Gaza could itself be a feature-length film. There is immense pain and immense injustice there.”
He also addressed Gaza’s medical workers directly, saying, “I want them to know they are not forgotten, and that some of us are still trying to achieve justice for them.”
