Senior United Nations officials have condemned Israeli air strikes that hit a camp for displaced people in Rafah, southern Gaza, killing and injuring scores of Palestinians including women and children.
The Medical Association for the Prevention of War (Australia) has today urged the Australian Government to act, saying “this latest, horrific bombardment of a camp of displaced people seeking safety cannot stand”.
Statement by MAPW
The Israeli military has repeatedly bombed a designated civilian ‘safe zone’ in Rafah, injuring and mutilating many people and causing a rising number of deaths.
Medical response capacity, after many months of targeted attacks on healthcare in Gaza, is severely limited; there is one functioning hospital in Rafah. Injured survivors of the attack may only receive the most rudimentary care, and may suffer greatly – now, and for the rest of their lives.
We, an organisation of healthcare workers, deplore this attack and the ongoing bombing of Rafah.
The attack comes in the immediate aftermath of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order that Israel immediately end military operations in Rafah.
And while the Israeli Government has called this attack “a tragic mistake”, it is entirely consistent with the pattern of Israel’s disregard for legal norms and its egregious misuse of humanitarian measures.
People in Gaza have been systematically and forcibly displaced at a mass scale since October 2023, repeatedly ‘evacuated’ through ‘safe routes’ into ‘humanitarian zones’ where – rather than being protected, as is required under international law – they have been subjected to attack.
Imprecise and incomplete information about humanitarian and conflict zones is given to civilians, and hospitals and UN installations – where shelter should rightly be found – have been regularly attacked.
This latest, horrific bombardment of a camp of displaced people seeking safety cannot stand.
Health workers in Australia and around the world have consistently called, since October 2023, for urgent action to protect life and uphold international law in Gaza.
The Australian Government, amongst others, has failed to act, and by failing to act has helped create the conditions that have enabled this latest atrocity.
Too many people with the power and obligation to act have chosen instead to protect their own positions, quibble over slogans and symbols, opportunistically create and exploit divisions, and promote a culture of impunity.
Health workers and others in civil society will continue to speak out for an end to the genocide of the people of Gaza, on whom new acts of cruelty are unleashed day by day, month by month.
We will continue to demand accountability from our educational and other institutions whose partnerships help legitimise the weapons trade and the role it plays in enabling the destruction of Gaza and her people.
And we continue to be deeply ashamed and appalled at the silence from our leaders.
We stand in solidarity with our health worker colleagues in Gaza.
We call on our own Government to respect and uphold the law, to defend the independence of the world’s courts, and to condemn and withhold all support from parties that violate court orders, international laws, human rights, and moral standards. We despair when this appears so hard to do.
Further commentary
Previously at Croakey
- On Gaza, the silences, and the inadequacy of words
- Doctors call for greater pressure on Israel over Gaza
- Calls to stop the siege of Gaza, halt the arms supply, and end the health sector’s silence
- Gaza medical staff working under ‘profound psychological strain’ as further threats loom
- World medical leaders call for Gaza ceasefire amid mass graves horror
- New publication documents the terrible toll on women in Gaza
- “Silence becomes complicity”: MPs and other health professionals urged to take stand on Gaza
- “The question is no longer whether Palestinians will starve to death in a famine, but how many will do so”
- World leaders put on notice over Gaza, amid “war on children”
- As children starve to death in Gaza, health and medical academics urge colleagues to speak up
- Australian academics call on their universities to demand ceasefire, amid fears about famine, disease and scholasticide in Gaza
- “To those speaking out for the people of Gaza – thank you for not looking the other way”: Dr Sophie Scamps
- As Australia and other countries put pressure on Israel, health and medical organisations describe horrific conditions in Gaza
- As humanitarian nightmare escalates in Gaza, and the world enters “an age of chaos”, we must work harder for peace
- As global leaders and aid groups speak up about “catastrophic crisis” in Gaza, health professionals are under pressure to remain silent
- Health workers and agencies document the war’s wide-ranging impacts on people in Gaza
- From Gaza: finding words for the unimaginable
- Health leaders join growing calls for permanent ceasefire in Gaza and Israel
- As the people in Gaza experience a “living hell”, medical and humanitarian leaders step up pressure for a permanent ceasefire
- This doctor is urging medical leadership on ceasefire in Gaza and Israel, as United Nations warns of threat to global security
- Amid catastrophic health threats in Gaza, health leaders urge a permanent ceasefire
- Amid ongoing health catastrophe in Gaza, why the silence?
- As Gaza hospitals become “scenes of death, devastation, and despair”, global community urged to act for peace
- Doctors who work with refugees urge medical organisations to speak up for a ceasefire in Gaza
- “Worse every day”: toll mounts in Gaza, including for children and health workers
- “This cannot go on” – a cry for an end to intolerable suffering
- Medical organisation publishes open letter expressing “extreme concern” at Australia’s failure to support ceasefire in Gaza
- Health sector urged to speak out for ceasefire in Gaza
- Calls for ceasefire amid catastrophe in Gaza – “every child everywhere deserves peace”