The Palestinian Doctor the World Was Never Meant to Notice
Abd al-Rahim Abd al-Hay Youssef Kardi.
Chances are you had never heard his name. Why would you? None of the international media never considered his story worthy of headlines.
Kardi was not only a physician at Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital. He was also a Hamas deputy cell commander who infiltrated Israel on October 7, took part in Hamas’s atrocities, held hostage Romi Gonen in Gaza, and continued serving Hamas until he was killed in an Israeli airstrike over the weekend.
This exposes a reality that many people simply refuse to confront.
For months, much of the international conversation has revolved around the image of “doctors killed by Israel.” Rarely do audiences hear that some medical professionals have also been accused of serving as active members of Hamas’s military wing. Rarely are they told that hospitals can be exploited not only as medical facilities but also by terrorist operatives.
When I listened to Romi Gonen courageously describe her captivity, I couldn’t help but think about the people around the world who continue to romanticize Hamas or excuse its actions.
How can anyone justify the kidnapping of innocent civilians? How can anyone defend the murder of men, women, and children?
How can any movement that carried out the October 7 massacre still find defenders in respectable circles?
Equally troubling is the silence. Stories that reinforce a simplistic narrative travel around the world within minutes. Stories that complicate that narrative often disappear.
If a man who was both a physician and a Hamas commander receives almost no international attention, what does that say about our willingness to confront uncomfortable facts?
This is precisely why these stories matter. Because if we fail to tell them, the public will hear only one side. They will hear about doctors, journalists, and civilians killed in Israeli strikes without ever asking whether some of those individuals were also active participants in terrorism.
Every civilian deserves protection. Every innocent death is a tragedy. But truth also matters. When terrorists deliberately embed themselves within civilian institutions, they exploit not only hospitals and media organizations, they exploit the moral instincts of democratic societies.
Abd al-Rahim’s story deserves to be known. Not because it is unique, but because it forces us to confront a difficult question:
How many more people presented to the world simply as “doctors,” “journalists,” or “civilians” were also active members of Hamas? Ignoring that question does not advance peace. It only obscures the reality of the enemy Israel has been fighting since October 7.
For Romi Gonen, this is more than another targeted strike, it is a measure of justice.
Justice for a young woman who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival and held hostage for nearlytwo years. Justice for someone who has had the courage to share the horrors of her captivity with the world. Justice that cannot erase the trauma she endured, but at least ensures that the man accused of inflicting it can never harm another innocent person again.