Poh Si Teng says the film rose out of “deep despair” over Gaza and Israeli attacks on her former Al Jazeera colleagues.

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The new documentary American Doctor tells the story of how the besieged hospitals of Gaza have continued to treat the sick and wounded throughout Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory, with local medical staff risking their own lives in the process. According to Palestinian officials, Israeli attacks have killed about 1,700 healthcare workers in Gaza since October 2023. The documentary follows three U.S. doctors as they volunteer in Gaza hospitals.

Director Poh Si Teng says the film rose out of her “deep despair” over what was happening in Gaza, including deadly Israeli attacks on her former Al Jazeera colleagues. American Doctor is her attempt “to bring Palestine back to the United States,” Teng says.

We also speak with two of the subjects of the film: trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa and emergency physician Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who is Palestinian American.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

We end today’s show looking at the new documentary American Doctor. It tells the story of three U.S. doctors who volunteered in the besieged hospitals of Gaza along with local medical staff who risk their lives on a daily basis to care for the sick and wounded. According to Palestinian officials, Israeli attacks have killed about 1,700 healthcare workers in Gaza since October 2023.

American Doctor follows the orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mark Perlmutter, the trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa from California and the emergency physician from Chicago, Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who is Palestinian American. This is the film’s trailer. It begins with Dr. Ahmad.

DR. THAER AHMAD: I want to take you through what Gaza looks like when a hospital is totally overwhelmed. You’re getting waves of patients. Who will be prioritized? What do you have to treat them? You’ve got no pain medicine to give the people whose legs have been blown off.

DR. FEROZE SIDHWA: Three surgeons all working on one little girl, for what? Two-and-a-half hours? And she’s probably going to lose her right leg, left leg and her left arm.

DR. MARK PERLMUTTER: And she’s starting to wake up.

DR. THAER AHMAD: Let’s get her warm.

DR. MARK PERLMUTTER: As a Jewish physician, I knew nothing about Gaza. Like most Americans, I thought everybody out here were nothing but terrorists, because that’s what I was told.

DR. FEROZE SIDHWA: I’m not Israeli. I’m not Palestinian. I’m not Christian. I’m not Muslim. I’m not Jewish. And I don’t really have any connection to it. But as an American, I just don’t want my government involved in crimes.

DR. THAER AHMAD: I’m a Palestinian. I’m not a spokesperson. I’m a human being. I’m a U.S. doctor who wants to see babies like my babies not be killed anymore.

DR. MARK PERLMUTTER: What surprised me most was how the carnage was focused on journalists, healthcare workers and children.

UNIDENTIFIED: This bomb, pkwhhh!

DR. MARK PERLMUTTER: Where was that?

DR. FEROZE SIDHWA: That bomb hit the building.

DR. MARK PERLMUTTER: There was a 15-year-old kid ready for discharge that was incinerated.

DR. FEROZE SIDHWA: And if I had gone down and been changing that kid’s dressing, there would have been three bodies, and I would have been one of them.

DR. THAER AHMAD: When they hit a hospital, that’s a deep tragedy that people will feel in the community for the foreseeable future. We’re just asking that hospitals not be targeted. Why that conversation is derailed in the United States is beyond me.

DR. FEROZE SIDHWA: We do not have to accept that as Americans.

The United States could stop sending jet fuel, bombs, all sorts of weapons. This is a political problem. We need a political solution.

DR. MARK PERLMUTTER: We’re a good pair. You talk intelligently, and I talk emotionally.

DR. THAER AHMAD: It’s on us to make sure that their stories are told.

I got rejected, and then I come back to the United States and get detained by the Department of Homeland Security.

DR. MARK PERLMUTTER: This is what my tax dollars did, what your tax dollars did, what my neighbors’ tax dollars did. They have the right to know the truth.

AMY GOODMAN: The trailer of the new film American Doctor. And this is a clip from the film featuring Dr …