Doctors treat a wounded child using mobile phone flashlights at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, after a power outage on July 7, 2025. Photo by Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images
More than 100 international doctors and other healthcare professionals who have served in Gaza over the past 22 months have signed an open letter calling for global attention to the destructive Israeli assault on Palestinian healthcare workers and urging immediate international action to protect them and to restore Gaza’s decimated health system.
“We refuse to be silent while our colleagues are starved and shot by Israel,” the letter, shared first with Zeteo, reads. “Our Palestinian colleagues – doctors, nurses, and first responders – are all rapidly losing weight due to forced starvation at the hands of the Israeli government. Many suffer from hunger, dizziness and fainting episodes while performing operations and triaging patients in emergency rooms.”
Those who signed the letter include Drs. Thaer Ahmad, Yasser Khan, Tanya Haj-Hassan, Ambereen Sleemi, and Nick Maynard.
Conditions in Gaza have reached the worst they’ve been in the past 22 months. Starvation deaths are accelerating at an alarming rate. Remaining hospitals still operating are at “near-total collapse” as they face an average of eight “mass casualty incidents” every day. Hundreds of thousands grow thirstier as fresh water access dwindles and disease spreads.
To make matters worse, the conditions are impacting those tasked with helping alleviate the pain. As of May 2025, the letter states, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,500 Palestinian health workers. Many more, the letter notes, have been abducted, unlawfully detained, and tortured in Israeli custody.
All the while, the letter adds, the Israeli military has severely restricted the work of international aid and medical organizations in Gaza, and blocked the “entry of critical supplies – medications, surgical tools, food, and even baby formula.” Palestinian medical professionals, who’ve also been displaced from their homes, often living in tents or makeshift shelters, have continued to serve thousands of their neighbors who are in similar situations.
A healthcare worker tries to rest at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Aug. 9, 2025. Photo: AFP via Getty Images
In the letter, the doctors lay out exactly why the conditions in Gaza are so bad.
“Patients cannot heal without adequate nutrition and access to comprehensive health services. If someone survives being shot by an Israeli soldier or a blast injury from an Israeli warplane, they still have to heal from their wounds. Malnutrition is a major barrier to full recovery, leaving people susceptible to infections for which very little treatment is now available in Gaza,” reads the letter.
“Put simply: Your body cannot heal when you have not eaten properly in days or sometimes weeks, as is now commonplace in Gaza. The same is true for doctors and healthcare workers, who are struggling to provide care while facing the same conditions of extreme deprivation.”
The more than 100 medical professionals were joined by more than 150 allied healthcare workers, who also signed the letter.
“We sign this letter in solidarity – and in outrage. We reject the violence of silence and supposed neutrality while our colleagues are starved and shot at by Israel.”
Read the full letter:
We refuse to be silent while our colleagues are starved and shot by Israel.
We, the undersigned healthcare professionals, have worked alongside our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza since late 2023, and have witnessed firsthand the scale and severity of suffering.
Today, we raise our voices again in full solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza, all of whom continue to endure unimaginable violence.
Israel’s ongoing genocide and deepening siege have effectively destroyed the entire health system in Gaza. The few remaining partially functioning hospitals are held together by the determination and commitment of Palestinian doctors and nurses, all of whom continue to care for patients despite the constant risk of targeting, and now starvation too.
Our Palestinian colleagues – doctors, nurses, and first responders – are all rapidly losing weight due to forced starvation at the hands of the Israeli government. Many suffer from hunger, dizziness and fainting episodes while performing operations and triaging patients in emergency rooms. Most have been displaced into tents after being forced from their homes, and many are surviving on less than a single serving of rice a day.
The humanitarian consequences of the political crisis in Gaza are not only marked by Israel’s direct military onslaught against the entire population, but also by Israel’s methodical attack of the health system:
Palestinian healthcare workers have been killed in large numbers as a result of Israel’s repeated and systemic attacks on the health system and health workforce. Over 1,580 health workers had been killed as of May 2025.
The Israeli military has abducted, unlawfully detained, abused, and tortured hundreds of Palestinian healthcare workers, holding them in abject conditions in prisons and detention camps.
The Israeli state has repeatedly blocked patient evacuations and international medical initiatives, and has closed or obstructed critical evacuation and humanitarian routes.
Israel continues to systematically block the entry of critical supplies—medications, surgical tools, food, and even baby formula. As a result, Palestinian health workers must try to save lives in hospitals without the most basic supplies that are readily available only a short distance away.
Patients cannot heal without adequate nutrition and access to comprehensive health services. If someone survives being shot by an Israeli soldier or a blast injury from an Israeli warplane, they still have to heal from their wounds. Malnutrition is a major barrier to full recovery, leaving people susceptible to infections for which very little treatment is now available in Gaza. Put simply: Your body cannot heal when you have not eaten properly in days or sometimes weeks, as is now commonplace in Gaza. The same is true for doctors and healthcare workers, who are struggling to provide care while facing the same conditions of extreme deprivation.
These are not logistical challenges that can be solved simply by more medical aid or more international medical delegations. This is an entirely man-made crisis driven by limitless cruelty and complete disregard for Palestinian life.
We demand immediate international action to:
Protect Palestinian healthcare workers and all Palestinians, including coordinated efforts to secure the immediate release of unlawfully detained Palestinians and Palestinian health workers.
Protect health sites and immediately stop the attacks on all health facilities including hospitals, health clinics, and ambulances, as mandated by international law.
Lift Israel’s illegal blockade and ensure unimpeded humanitarian access for food, clean water, medical supplies, and fuel distribution; and ensure unobstructed access for international medical delegations throughout Gaza.
Ensure an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and an end to the unlawful military occupation of Gaza.
Hold accountable those responsible for attacks, detentions, and abuse affecting the medical mission in Gaza.
We sign this letter in solidarity — and in outrage. We reject the violence of silence and supposed neutrality while our colleagues are starved and shot at by Israel.
Signed by health professionals who have worked in Gaza:
Mahmooda Syed, DO, MBA, FACEP
Brennan Bollman MD, MPH
Ayesha Khan, MD, MPH
Zahed Rahman RN, Critical Care
Abeerah Muhammad MSN, RN, CENEN
Owais Nadeem, MD
Sarah Badran, MD, MACM
Lana Abugharbieh BSN, RN, CEN
Nour Sharaf, DO
Aziz Rahman, MD
Talal Ali Khan, MD, FACP, FASN, FRCP
Elidalis Burgos, MSN, APRN, AGACNP-BC
James Smith, MBBS, MA, MSc, MSc, British Emergency Physician
Mohammad Rizwan Minhas, MD
Khawaja Ikram, DO
Noor Amin, MD
Arham Ali, MD, MS. Assistant Professor, Pediatric Critical Care
Yipeng Ge, MD, MPH, CCFP
Margaret Ogden, MPH, Registered Nurse
Qutaiba Mohammad Allawwama, Emergency Nurse
Sarah Lalonde, Bsc. MD, CCFP-EM
Zena Saleh, MD, General Surgery Resident
Tarek Meguid, MD,OB/GYN
Anas Alkassem, MD
Ali Khader, MD, MPH
Nada Al Hadithy, FRCS, MD, FMLM, PgDip
Mumen Diraneyya, Consultant general surgeon
Hamza AbdulQader, Critical Care RN
Thaer Ahmad, MD and board member of PAMA
Mir S Ali, MD, Pediatrician
Uzer Khan, MD
Feroze Sidhwa, MD, MPH, FACS, FICS
Deirdre Nunan, MD, FRCSC (orthopaedics)
Ben Thomson, MD, MPH, MSc, FRCPC
Ambereen Sleemi, MD, MPH Urogynecologist/ Ob Gyn
Ahmed Hassabelnaby, DO – Emergency Medicine
Saira Hussain, MBBS FRCA MA FANZCA
Bushra Othman, BMBS, FRACS, General Surgeon
Mina Naguib, Emergency Physician, BSc, BMBS, DMCC, MPH, FRCRM
Tom Potokar, Prof, OBE, Plastic Surgeon
Goher Rahbour, BMedSci, MBChB, MRCS, MD Res, FRCS
Nick Maynard, MD
Junaid Sultan, Consultant vascular surgeon
Aarianna Read, Registered nurse
Aalisha Mariam Karimi, MB BChir, MRCP, FRCA, DipHTM
Aqsa Durrani, MD, MPH
Janet Hall, Medical Doctor
Matthew Arnaouti, Trauma & Orthopedic Registrar
Kirsty Blacka, Charge Sister – Registered Nurse
Adam Hamawy, MD FACS
Ana Jeelani, Consultant Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon
Kaji Sritharan, Consultant Vascular Surgeon
Haleh Sheikholeslami, MD, FAAFP
Dr Paul Ransom, UK Emergency Physician
Yasser Khan, MD, FRCSC
Einar Lande, Gynecologist
Lucy Hooton, Head Nurse
Line Dahlgaard Berntzen, Doctor
John Kahler,MD, FAAP
Chandra Hassan, MD
Yassar Arain, MD
Nahreen Ahmed, MD MPH
Tanya Haj-Hassan, BMBCh
Mahmoud Sabha, MD
Khaled Al-hreish, MD
Nabeel Rana, MD
Alia Kattan, MD
Rana Mahmoud, RNBSN
Mohamad Abdelfattah, MD
Hina Syed , M.D.
Jennifer Arriaga, BSN, RN, CCRN
Morgan McMonagle, MB BCh FRCSI FACS MD
Christos Georgalas, Professor of head and neck surgery
Tammy Abughnaim, MD, Emergency Medicine
Abdullah Salameh, General surgery
Mohammed Akuji, Consultant Anaesthetist
Amy Neilson, MBBS BSc MPH&TM FACRRM FACTM FEWM
Jason O’Connor, Registered Nurse, PANZMA
Osama H. M. Hamed, Consultant Surgeon
Dr. Farah Abdul Aziz, MBBS FRACS
Montaha Khan, ICU Specialist
Salih El Saddy, MD, PANZMA
Jacklyne Scarbolo, Medical team leader, MPH
Jamal Merei, General surgeon
Patrick Ennis, NHS Advanced Paramedic
Husam Basheer, Orthopedic consultant
Mohammed Alkandari, MD
Ghassan Alami, MD-CM, FRCS(C)
Travis Melin, D.O
Jeremy Hickey, Specialist Anaesthetist FANZCA
Asma Lina fazlanie, MbChB, FRCA, MRCP
Mohammed Mustafa, MD
Sakib Rokadiya
Hanadi Katerji, RN
Victoria Rose, Consultant Plastic Surgeon
Martina Marchiò, PMR
Wilhelmi Massay, Critical Care ICU / Emergency Department RN
Tas Qureshi, Surgeon
Heba Al-Nashef, Registered Midwife, MSc.
Mark Brauner, DO, FACEP
Azeem Elahi, MD
Wajid Jawaid, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon
Michail Liontiris, MD, MScIH – Emergency Medicine
Haseeb Khawaja MD
Mohamed S A Elfar, MD, MSc, FACS, FCCM
Greg Shay, MD
Elen O’Donnell, MBBS, FACRRM, DipPH
Mohamed Kuziez , MD, FAAP
Adil Husain, M.D.
Mohammed Sbeih, MD, FACS
Chandra Hassan, MD, FACS
Raul Incertis Jarillo, Anesthesiologist / ER
Shehzad Batliwala, DO
Anas Ahmed, MD
Mark Perlmutter MD
Joelle Tischhauser
Dr Chris Holden
Amanda Prezioso, Nurse
Yacine Haffaf, Surgeon
Arham Ali, MD, MS. Assistant Professor; Pediatric Critical Care
Hamza AbdulQader, Critical Care RN
Rana Mahmoud, RNBSN
Riad Abdelkarim, MD, MHCM, FACP; Chief Medical Officer
The letter was also signed by 159 allied healthcare professionals.
ICYMI – For a more in-depth look at Israel’s war on Gaza’s health workers, watch Zeteo’s recently acquired film, ‘Gaza: Doctors Under Attack,’ and check out more about Israel’s genocidal war below:
WATCH NOW: ‘Gaza: Doctors Under Attack’ – The Full Film They Didn’t Want You To See
‘A Game of Target Practice’: Doctors Back From Gaza Share Harrowing Stories of Israel’s Brutality in Exclusive Town Hall
‘You Cannot Destroy a People Without First Destroying Their Healers’: Israel’s War on Gaza’s Medical System