AB092. Reclaiming narratives in global health: knowledge as resistance in the documentation of health in Palestine during genocide [2023–2025]

Background: The destruction of Gaza’s health system, including hospitals, personnel, and data infrastructure, has extended alongside deliberate efforts to delegitimize Palestinian health institutions and health data through suppression and the mainstream media’s smear campaign. In this context, academic publishing becomes a critical space for documenting public health realities, affirming the credibility of Palestinian voices, giving them space to tell their story, and resisting erasure through evidence. This study aims to (I) map the volume and characteristics of peer-reviewed health publications on Palestine between 2023 and 2025; (II) identify authorship patterns and institutional affiliations; and (III) analyze the thematic and ethical positioning of this literature in the context of ongoing genocide.

Methods: A bibliometric and qualitative content analysis was conducted on 491 peer-reviewed articles retrieved using PoP with the keywords “Palestine”, “Gaza”, and “health”. VOSviewer was used to generate keyword co-occurrence and co-authorship network visualizations. Citation analysis and affiliation mapping were performed, with special attention to the role of Palestinian diaspora scholars and international solidarity networks.

Results: There was a marked increase in publications during the genocide period, with themes shifting from service delivery to trauma, health system collapse, forced displacement, and excess mortality. The most cited articles defended the credibility of Gaza’s Ministry of Health and reframed mortality reporting as both scientific and ethical acts. Co-authorship networks highlighted increasing international solidarity, yet Gaza-based researchers remained underrepresented due to infrastructural and political constraints.

Conclusions: In contexts of political violence and disinformation, health publishing becomes a form of epistemic resistance. Bibliometric analysis reveals how, when ethically grounded, academic outputs can defend suppressed knowledge systems, mobilize humanitarian attention, and advance justice in global health.

Keywords: Health systems; health services; bibliometrics; political violence; Palestine