During the 2023 Israel-Hamas War more than 300 health workers were killed during attacks on medical facilities and medical transport. Although the injuries happened both on the Israeli[1] side and on the Palestinian side,[2] most of these attacks were carried out by Israeli forces against Palestinians.[2]

The World Health Organization (WHO) documented 178 health attacks in the Gaza Strip that resulted in the death and injury of healthcare workers on duty.[3]

Attacks on health workers

Israel

Israel's national emergency service reported that three employees were murdered, four volunteers were injured, a patient was shot inside an ambulance and nine ambulances were damaged due to gun and fire damage on the October 7 attacks.[4] During Be'eri massacre the local dental clinic became the site of a standoff between attacking militants and the kibbutz's security teams.[5] It was eventually stormed and reportedly led to the killing of all the staff and patients.[6][7]

Two physicians from the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba were killed at around the initial October 7 attack. Dr. Eitan Naaman was killed while serving in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) after being called up to serve shortly after the attack. While Dr. Daniel Levy was killed during the Be'eri massacre while working to treat the wounded.[8]

Palestine

By 16 November it was reported that more than 200 health care workers had been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, per the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Some have been killed while helping patients at hospitals, in ambulances or at the sight of bombings, while others were killed while at home.[9]

The Al-Ahli Arab Hospital is an 80-bed hospital in Gaza City.[10] The Israel Defense Force (IDF) stated that in the 11 days preceding the explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital, 450 rockets fired by Palestinian militant organizations landed inside Gaza.[11] On Saturday 14 October, according to a statement by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, an Israeli rocket had damaged the upper two floors of the hospital's cancer treatment center, which contained the ultrasound and mammography wards, and injured four staff members.[12] Another explosion occurred in a parking lot in the courtyard at 6:59 p.m. local time which lead to an estimated death toll of about 471.[13]

The WHO strongly condemned Israel's repeated orders to evacuate al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, calling it a death sentence for the sick and wounded. As more than 2,000 patients were forced to move to southern Gaza potentially causing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza to worsen.[14] On 13 December, Jacobin reported 240 people were trapped at al-Awda, surrounded by Israeli snipers, without clean water and surviving on one meal per day of bread or rice.[15] A staffer at the hospital reported Israeli snipers had shot at a one pregnant civilian at the hospital, and a hospital monitoring manager stated a nurse had been killed by an Israeli sniper on the hospital's fourth floor through the window.[16][17]

Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulance hit by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Yunis on 7 October 2023.

On 18 November 2023, it was reported that two people were killed while traveling in a clearly identified Doctors Without Borders evacuation convoy in Gaza City.[18] The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that Israeli forces targeted an ambulance in the northern Gaza Strip, killing three medical personnel. WHO also documented 37 attacks on health facilities and ambulances, in which six doctors were killed.[19] A total of 28 health workers have been killed since the bombing began.[20] 30 incidents of violence against health facilities, ambulances and health workers in Gaza worsened lives and access to health care.[21][22]

UN Workers

The war was the deadliest ever for UN workers, with at least 88 people who worked for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, killed since 7 October.[23] The UNRWA stated that there had been about 13,000 staff working in Gaza prior to the war and those killed included teachers, school principles, health workers, a gynecologist, engineers, support staff and a psychologist. Some of the deceased workers were also reportedly killed with their families due to IDF bombing campaigns.[24] The head of the United Nations Antonio Guterres said that no other conflict has caused so much damage to the employees of the United Nations. The total number of UNRWA staff killed was later raised to 136.[25]

International reactions

Aid groups called for urgent action to stop attacks on health care in Gaza.[26] Processions were held across the UK to pay tribute to healthcare workers killed in Gaza during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[27] UN chief Antonio Guterres paid tribute to the 136 UN staff killed in the fighting.[25]

Healthcare workers from across the UK took part in a silent march across Westminster Bridge to demand protection for Palestinian medical workers targeted by Israeli forces in Gaza, for those killed in Israeli aggression. The loss was mourned, and a cease-fire was called for.[28]

On 10 November 2023, British healthcare workers protested outside Downing Street in memory of the nearly 200 doctors who died during the war. The vigil was organized to urge Rishi Sank for an immediate ceasefire. Numerous hospital staff members carried one of 189 distinct placards, each displaying the name of a healthcare professional who lost their life in Gaza. They observed a moment of silence, after which they recited the names of their fallen colleagues from Gaza, followed by a collective call for an immediate ceasefire.[29]

In early December the group Healthcare Workers for Palestine gathered to read off the names of the deceased health care workers in Gaza, outside the Art Institute of Chicago, and to also call for a permanent cease-fire.[30] On December 10, 2023, hundreds of doctors and medical staff marched in Karachi, Pakistan to pay tribute to their Palestinian counterparts. The event has been named the "White Coat March". Demonstrators chanted slogans of "Free Palestine" and "Labbaik ya Gaza (Gaza we are here)".[31]

References

  1. ↑ "שילמו בחייהם: מתנדבי מד"א ואיחוד הצלה נרצחו בזמן שטיפלו בפצועים". www.makorrishon.co.il. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  2. 1 2 Baker, Elise (December 21, 2023). "In Defense of Gaza's Hospitals and Health Workers". Just Security.
  3. ↑ "UN says 22 healthcare workers killed in Gaza amid Israeli war". anews.
  4. ↑ "The Harming of Medical Personnel and Facilities" (PDF). Physicians for Human Rights. November 16, 2023. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  5. ↑ Tom Cheshire, Sanya Burgess, Jack Taylor and Michelle Inez Simon. "Murder, Kidnap, Survival - Kibbutz Be'eri Attack". Sky news. Retrieved November 21, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ Leana S. Wen (October 30, 2023). "We Cannot Forget What Happened at Israel's Soroka Hospital". Time. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Paramedic Amit Mann, 22: Sacrificed herself to protect patients". Times of Israel. 14 October 2023. Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  8. ↑ ליוי, מירי בן-דוד (2023-10-26). "בסורוקה מתאבלים על שני רופאים שנהרגו: "הצוות שבור, לא תופס את גודל האובדן"". Ynet (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2024-01-08.
  9. ↑ Romo, Vanessa (November 16, 2023). "Doctors are among the many dead in Gaza. These are their stories". NPR. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Gaza hospital blast: what we know about the explosion". Reuters. 18 October 2023. Archived from the original on 28 October 2023.
  11. ↑ "Israel military steps up denial it hit Gaza hospital, says building undamaged". Reuters. 18 October 2023. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  12. ↑ "Anglican-run al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza damaged by Israeli rocket fire as war continues". Anglican Communication News Service. The Anglican Church. 16 October 2023. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  13. ↑ Thomson, Alex (18 October 2023). "Who was behind the Gaza hospital blast – visual investigation". Channel 4. Archived from the original on 18 October 2023. Retrieved 18 October 2023. Israel claims the Islamic Jihad failed missile was fired from here, a cemetery very close to the hospital, but look again at the video of the event, the trajectory of the missile doesn't line up with that location... Confusingly the Israeli presentation also says the missile was fired from a location down on the southwest, it can't be both.
  14. ↑ "Evacuation orders by Israel to hospitals in northern Gaza are a death sentence for the sick and injured". www.who.int.
  15. ↑ Marcetic, Branko. "As Israel Besieges al-Awda Hospital, War Crimes in Gaza Have Become Unremarkable". Jacobin. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  16. ↑ "Al-Awda Hospital in north Gaza under siege, Israeli sniper kills two". Jordan News. 9 December 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  17. ↑ Ludwig, Mike (12 December 2023). "IDF Shot at Pregnant Civilian Outside Gaza Hospital Under Siege, Staffer Says". Truthout. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  18. ↑ Robertson, Nick (2 December 2023). "Doctors Without Borders: Attack on organization's convoy 'deliberate,' calling for investigation". The Hill. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
  19. ↑ "Health, U.N. Workers Killed in Gaza". WSJ.
  20. ↑ https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/attacks-health-care-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories-12-15-october-2023
  21. ↑ Rubenstein, Leonard (October 14, 2023). "Why Gaza health care facilities and workers have suffered so much violence".
  22. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/al-ahli-hospital-strike-gaza-1.6999842
  23. ↑ Ahmed, Kaamil (November 6, 2023). "Israel-Hamas war is deadliest ever for UN aid workers, with at least 88 killed". The Guardian.
  24. ↑ Regan, Hande Atay Alam, Helen (2023-11-14). "UN mourns the deaths of more than 100 aid workers in Gaza, the highest number killed in any conflict in its history". CNN. Retrieved 2023-12-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. 1 2 "Israel-Hamas war: 136 UN staff killed in Gaza, says Guterres – DW – 12/24/2023". dw.com.
  26. ↑ Sullivan, Helen; Yang, Maya; Belam, Martin; Yang, Helen Sullivan (now); Maya; Kearney (earlier), Christine (November 13, 2023). "Aid groups urge attacks on healthcare centres to stop – as it happened". The Guardian – via www.theguardian.com.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  27. ↑ "Vigils across UK for 200 healthcare workers killed in Gaza - Pressmediaofindia". www.pressmediaofindia.com/.
  28. ↑ "British health care workers hold silent march in support of Gaza medical staff". www.aa.com.tr.
  29. ↑ Dugan, Emily (November 10, 2023). "UK hospital workers protest outside No 10 against deaths of medics in Gaza". The Guardian.
  30. ↑ Hellwig, Crystal; Cramer, Matthew (2023-12-08). "Health care workers read names of doctors and nurses killed in Gaza - CBS Chicago". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2023-12-29.
  31. ↑ "'White Coat March': Hundreds of doctors rally to pay tribute to Palestinian fellows | Pakistan Today".
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