Introduction by Croakey: The World Medical Association will hold its 229th Council Session in Uruguay later this month, and the Australian Medical Association (AMA) is being urged to use the meeting to advocate for the protection of healthcare workers in Palestine.
Dr Sue Wareham OAM, National President of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia), urges medical doctors and students to sign an open letter to the AMA, published below, which also calls for accountability for Israeli Government attacks on healthcare workers and infrastructure.
The letter comes as United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres expressed shock at an Israeli army attack on a medical and emergency convoy in Gaza on 23 March that resulted in the killing of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian workers.
“Medical personnel and humanitarian and emergency workers must be protected by all at all times,” he said.
Guterres also condemned the reported killing of more than a thousand people, including women and children, since the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on 18 March.
Meanwhile, Médecins Sans Frontières has warned that a month-long siege imposed by Israeli authorities in Gaza means some critical medications are now in short supply and are running out, leaving Palestinians at risk of losing vital healthcare.
Sue Wareham writes:
Healthcare in Gaza is being destroyed on a scale that far exceeds that seen in any other war in living memory.
The universal right to healthcare, and the protections – both legal and moral – that generally protect medical and other health workers in war zones have been systematically and relentlessly attacked since the Israel-Palestine war escalated 18 months ago.
We are failing our Palestinian colleagues who are under attack simply for tending the sick and wounded.
In just one such recent attack, on 23 March the Israeli Defence Force killed 15 clearly identified medical and humanitarian workers who had been sent to collect injured people in the Rafah area in southern Gaza. Their bodies were later found in a mass grave.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies expressed its outrage at these attacks on its colleagues from the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
The Federation’s Secretary General Jagan Chapagain said: “Even in the most complex conflict zones, there are rules. These rules of International Humanitarian Law could not be clearer – civilians must be protected; humanitarians must be protected. Health services must be protected.”
Such atrocities against healthcare have occurred repeatedly in the war on Gaza. Accountability is needed.
The Medical Association for Prevention of War urges medical doctors and students to sign the letter below, available here, calling on the leadership of the Australian Medical Association to take far stronger action for the protection of medical and other health workers in Gaza.
For members of other professional health bodies, please call on your organisation to take similar action.
Open letter to the Australian Medical Association
We appeal for your intervention for the protection of healthcare workers and facilities in Gaza, as Israel continues its relentless attacks on them with impunity.
The UN reports that hospitals in Gaza have become battlegrounds, and more than 1,000 healthcare workers have been killed since October 2023.
Dr Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the West Bank and Gaza, has stated that “the health sector is being systematically dismantled”.
The WHO’s Emergency Situation Update for the Occupied Palestinian Territories states that from 7 October 2023 to 14 March 2025, there were 670 attacks on health in Gaza, and 754 in the West Bank.
Over that period there were over 48,500 deaths, with over 111,000 injuries in Gaza – all from a population of just over two million people.
The World Food Program reports that over 90 percent of Palestinians face acute food insecurity, as Israel blocks all food, medicine and fuel from entering Gaza.
In addition, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) reported recently on the mass arbitrary and illegal detention of Palestinian medical workers and the torture, sexual abuse, starvation, and denial of essential medical treatment they suffer while in detention.
The report stated that the “lack of accountability for perpetrators further underscores the systemic nature of the issue, with victims facing ongoing violations and no legal recourse”.
The AMA’s support for the upholding of medical neutrality in Gaza, including its support for the World Medical Association (WMA) Resolution on the Protection of Healthcare in Israel and Gaza, is important.
That resolution recommended critically needed steps including unimpeded and accelerated humanitarian access to all of Gaza, and a safe working environment for healthcare personnel.
However, repeated calls from many organisations for respect for medical neutrality have been ignored by Israel. Far stronger action is needed.
We, the undersigned, call on the AMA to use the forthcoming 229th WMA Council Session that will be held from 24 – 26 April, to advocate not only for the urgent protection of our colleagues in Palestine, but also for accountability for the Israeli government’s targeted attacks on them and on healthcare infrastructure.
The WMA exists to promote the highest possible standards of medical ethics, and to defend the basic rights of patients and physicians. This cannot be achieved when violations of those rights and standards are glossed over by a refusal to name the perpetrator of the violations.
The WMA has thus far failed to establish and uphold any accountability measures in relation to grievous violations of medical neutrality and international and humanitarian law.
We ask that the AMA propose a resolution or resolutions that explicitly address such violations, and hold perpetrators accountable.
We further ask the AMA to advocate for impartial investigation of the evidence documented by PHRI of the abuse and torture of Palestinian medical and other detainees, and all necessary accountability measures to follow.
The 229th Council Session is an opportunity for the WMA to properly address these matters and regain our confidence in its deliberations on them, and we urge the AMA to enable this to happen.
• Dr Sue Wareham OAM is National President, Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia)
• The letter can be signed here.
From social media
See Croakey’s archive of articles on Gaza
