NZ Healthcare Workers Condemn Israeli Executions In Hospital And Call On The NZ Government To Act.

For more than three months hospitals, medical facilities, patients, and healthcare workers in Gaza have been under sustained attack. From air, land and sea Israeli forces have systematically destroyed the health system in Gaza.

“Israel has killed more than 26,000 civilians, mostly women and children. Those injured are in the tens of thousands and mounting. They are unable to seek medical care because the vast majority of hospitals in Gaza have either been destroyed or are being destroyed”, Aotearoa Healthcare Workers for Palestine (AHW4P) spokesperson, Serena Moran says.

Al Nasser and Al Amal hospitals in the previously Israeli declared safe zone in southern Gaza are currently under military siege, with no one able to enter or leave. A few healthcare workers remain at the hospital with the majority forced to flee to safety. There are virtually no medical supplies left due to the ongoing Israeli blockade on humanitarian supplies entering Gaza.

Now, Israeli forces are dressing up as civilians and medical personnel, entering hospitals and executing three patients in their beds.

“Three patients receiving treatment in Ibn Sina hospital in the occupied West Bank were executed two days ago. This is a clear breach of international law and part of the collective punishment that Israel is meting out to Palestinians. If you are Palestinian, you’re not even safe lying sick in a hospital bed”, states Moran.

AHW4P are concerned and shocked at the deafening silence of the government and medical professional bodies on these matters.

“How can our government and our professional bodies remain silent in the face of these ongoing flagrant breaches of international law where the protection of healthcare facilities and workers is continuously being violated? 407 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza in just three months”, says Moran

The International Court of Justice last week ruled that the State of Israel has a case to answer under the genocide convention and ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide.

“We feel ethically and legally bound to stand up and speak out for our health care colleagues in Gaza who are undergoing a genocide. We demand the government act now to prevent further acts of genocide and protect healthcare workers and civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. We call on our professional bodies to speak out, demand an immediate unconditional ceasefire and a scaled up unimpeded humanitarian aid response into Gaza. This is the morally right thing to do as a healthcare worker."

AHW4P is a national group of healthcare workers from a wide variety of speciality areas and includes Doctors, Nurses, Midwives, Healthcare Assistants, Social Workers amongst others.

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