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Hamawy is a New Jersey reconstructive surgeon, U.S. Army veteran who served as a combat trauma surgeon in Iraq, and now a Democratic candidate for Congress in NJ-12 to replace the retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman. He shot to prominence by volunteering as a doctor in Gaza in 2024 at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, where he got briefly trapped after the Rafah crossing shut down.
The guy has racked up endorsements from all the usual suspects: Justice Democrats, CAIR Action, PAL PAC, Senator Comrade Bernie Sanders, Rep. Ro Khanna, and the rest of the pro-Palestine progressive crowd. His platform is the standard leftist greatest hits: Medicare for All, ending U.S. funding for Israel's military actions, and the ever-so-clever slogan "healthcare not bombs."
The real fireworks, as always with these candidates, center on his blistering criticism of Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war. Hamawy popped up on streamer Hasan Piker's show and came out swinging against U.S. funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. He argued it "insulates Israel from having to make decisions to make peace" and "isolates them from having to deal with the consequences," likening it to "giving a bully body armor." He backed a full arms embargo on Israel and insisted that Israelis need to "feel the effects of war" to get serious about peace.
That did not sit well with fellow progressive Democrat Sue Altman in the same primary. Altman accused him of "cheerleading and wishing for the deaths of Israeli children" and said she draws the line at rhetoric that seems to treat more Israeli civilian deaths as some kind of goal.
Hamawy's supporters immediately cried smear and Islamophobia, pointing to his humanitarian record (including saving Sen. Tammy Duckworth's life in Iraq). Altman eventually issued an apology (though it was apparently unwritten), which Hamawy graciously accepted. Critics, however, figured the damage from the inflammatory exchange was already done.
During and after his Gaza stint, Hamawy insisted he saw no weapons, no military presence, and "definitely no tunnels" under the European Hospital or places like Nasser. He described it as a purely civilian facility treating mostly civilians, many of them children, in the middle of the devastation. Later reports about Hamas command centers and tunnels under or near the hospital (including the strike that took out Mohammed Sinwar in a tunnel beneath it) led critics to call him naive, in denial, or worse. Hamawy and his backers stand by his firsthand medical observations and dismiss the rest.
A shiny new Super PAC called American Priorities (or PAL PAC) is dumping serious cash, around $2 million, to boost him as a counter to pro-Israel money in the race. There is also some past testimony linked to the "Blind Sheikh" from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that conservative outlets have dusted off. His strong progressive bona fides get him cheers from the Sanders wing and eye rolls from everyone else who thinks his Israel rhetoric veers into antisemitism territory or puts civilians at risk.
Hamawy likes to frame it all as principled opposition to U.S.-funded wars and military aid overseas while focusing on domestic priorities like healthcare. To his fans he is a heroic humanitarian. To his detractors he is another example of the Democratic Party's lurch into territory that endangers allies and excuses terrorists. The NJ-12 primary remains a messy fight between the pro-Israel and anti-Israel factions as of early May 2026. For the unvarnished details, primary sources like the Jewish Insider piece or his own campaign site are worth a look.
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