UK doctors who have returned from Gaza have described the situation as “absolutely dire,” recalling blood soaked beds, emaciated colleagues and patients, and doctors forced to perform brain surgery on children without basic surgical equipment.
At an event hosted by Healthcare Workers for Palestine UK outside St Thomas’ Hospital, London, on 9 December, doctors told The BMJ they believed they had a duty to speak out for their colleagues in Gaza and to advocate for the health of the people there.
Earlier that same day paediatricians delivered a letter addressed to the UK prime minister and signed by more than 800 child health specialists to 10 Downing Street. It called on Kier Starmer to “end all arms export licences to Israel and to impose immediate sanctions upon Israel until it complies with its obligations under international law and until a sustainable ceasefire is in place.”1
The letter came as the UN reported further attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza. The attacks, which used “fire, bombs, and shells,” killed seven people, including four healthcare staff and a child, and injured at least three more medical staff and a 16 year old boy in a wheelchair at the hospital’s entrance who was on his way to the radiology department.2 …
