100+ Doctors Who Worked in Gaza Demand Global Action as ‘Colleagues Are Starved and Shot by Israel’

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.

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.”

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 below:

The Doctors’ Letter – Voices in Solidarity with our Palestinian Colleagues in Gaza

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 on 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:

1. Protect Palestinian healthcare workers and all Palestinians, including coordinated efforts to secure the immediate release of unlawfully detained Palestinians and Palestinian health workers.

2. Protect health sites and immediately stop the attacks on all health facilities, including hospitals, health clinics, and ambulances, as mandated by international law.

3. 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.

4. Ensure an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and an end to the unlawful military occupation of Gaza.

5. 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:

1. Mahmooda Syed, DO, MBA, FACEP

2. Brennan Bollman MD, MPH

3. Ayesha Khan, MD, MPH

4. Zahed Rahman RN, Critical Care

5. Abeerah Muhammad MSN, RN, CENEN

6. Owais Nadeem, MD

7. Sarah Badran, MD, MACM

8. Lana Abugharbieh BSN, RN, CEN

9. Nour Sharaf, DO

10. Aziz Rahman, MD

11. Talal Ali Khan, MD, FACP, FASN, FRCP

12. Elidalis Burgos, MSN, APRN, AGACNP-BC

13. James Smith, MBBS, MA, MSc, MSc, British Emergency Physician

14. Mohammad Rizwan Minhas, MD

15. Khawaja Ikram, DO

16. Noor Amin, MD

17. Arham Ali, MD, MS. Assistant Professor, Pediatric Critical Care

18. Yipeng Ge, MD, MPH, CCFP

19. Margaret Ogden, MPH, Registered Nurse

20. Qutaiba Mohammad Allawwama, Emergency Nurse

21. Sarah Lalonde, Bsc. MD, CCFP-EM

22. Zena Saleh, MD, General Surgery Resident

23. Tarek Meguid, MD,OB/GYN

24. Anas Alkassem, MD

25. Ali Khader, MD, MPH

26. Nada Al Hadithy, FRCS, MD, FMLM, PgDip

27. Mumen Diraneyya, Consultant general surgeon

28. Hamza AbdulQader, Critical Care RN

29. Thaer Ahmad, MD and board member of PAMA

30. Mir S Ali, MD, Pediatrician

31. Uzer Khan, MD

32. Feroze Sidhwa, MD, MPH, FACS, FICS

33. Deirdre Nunan, MD, FRCSC (orthopaedics)

34. Ben Thomson, MD, MPH, MSc, FRCPC

35. Ambereen Sleemi, MD, MPH Urogynecologist/ Ob Gyn

36. Ahmed Hassabelnaby, DO – Emergency Medicine

37. Saira Hussain, MBBS FRCA MA FANZCA

38. Bushra Othman, BMBS, FRACS, General Surgeon

39. Mina Naguib, Emergency Physician, BSc, BMBS, DMCC, MPH, FRCRM

40. Tom Potokar, Prof, OBE, Plastic Surgeon

41. Goher Rahbour, BMedSci, MBChB, MRCS, MD Res, FRCS

42. Nick Maynard, MD

43. Junaid Sultan, Consultant vascular surgeon

44. Aarianna Read, Registered nurse

45. Aalisha Mariam Karimi, MB BChir, MRCP, FRCA, DipHTM

46. Aqsa Durrani, MD, MPH

47. Janet Hall, Medical Doctor

48. Matthew Arnaouti, Trauma & Orthopedic Registrar

49. Kirsty Blacka, Charge Sister – Registered Nurse

50. Adam Hamawy, MD FACS

51. Ana Jeelani, Consultant Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon

52. Kaji Sritharan, Consultant Vascular Surgeon

53. Haleh Sheikholeslami, MD, FAAFP

54. Dr Paul Ransom, UK Emergency Physician

55. Yasser Khan, MD, FRCSC

56. Einar Lande, Gynecologist

57. Lucy Hooton, Head Nurse

58. Line Dahlgaard Berntzen, Doctor

59. John Kahler,MD, FAAP

60. Chandra Hassan, MD

61. Yassar Arain, MD

62. Nahreen Ahmed, MD MPH

63. Tanya Haj-Hassan, BMBCh

64. Mahmoud Sabha, MD

65. Khaled Al-hreish, MD

66. Nabeel Rana, MD

67. Alia Kattan, MD

68. Rana Mahmoud, RNBSN

69. Mohamad Abdelfattah, MD

70. Hina Syed , M.D.

71. Jennifer Arriaga, BSN, RN, CCRN

72. Morgan McMonagle, MB BCh FRCSI FACS MD

73. Christos Georgalas, Professor of head and neck surgery

74. Tammy Abughnaim, MD, Emergency Medicine

75. Abdullah Salameh, General surgery

76. Mohammed Akuji, Consultant Anaesthetist

77. Amy Neilson, MBBS BSc MPH&TM FACRRM FACTM FEWM

78. Jason O’Connor, Registered Nurse, PANZMA

79. Osama H. M. Hamed, Consultant Surgeon

80. Dr. Farah Abdul Aziz, MBBS FRACS

81. Montaha Khan, ICU Specialist

82. Salih El Saddy, MD, PANZMA

83. Jacklyne Scarbolo, Medical team leader, MPH

84. Jamal Merei, General surgeon

85. Patrick Ennis, NHS Advanced Paramedic

86. Husam Basheer, Orthopedic consultant

87. Mohammed Alkandari, MD

88. Ghassan Alami, MD-CM, FRCS(C)

89. Travis Melin, D.O

90. Jeremy Hickey, Specialist Anaesthetist FANZCA

91. Asma Lina fazlanie, MbChB, FRCA, MRCP

92. Mohammed Mustafa, MD

93. Sakib Rokadiya

94. Hanadi Katerji, RN

95. Victoria Rose, Consultant Plastic Surgeon

96. Martina Marchiò, PMR

97. Wilhelmi Massay, Critical Care ICU / Emergency Department RN

98. Tas Qureshi, Surgeon

99. Heba Al-Nashef, Registered Midwife, MSc.

100. Mark Brauner, DO, FACEP

101. Azeem Elahi, MD

102. Wajid Jawaid, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon

103. Michail Liontiris, MD, MScIH – Emergency Medicine

104. Haseeb Khawaja MD

105. Mohamed S A Elfar, MD, MSc, FACS, FCCM

106. Greg Shay, MD

107. Elen O’Donnell, MBBS, FACRRM, DipPH

108. Mohamed Kuziez , MD, FAAP

109. Adil Husain, M.D.

110. Mohammed Sbeih, MD, FACS

111. Chandra Hassan, MD, FACS

112. Raul Incertis Jarillo, Anesthesiologist / ER

113. Shehzad Batliwala, DO

114. Anas Ahmed, MD

115. Mark Perlmutter MD

116. Joelle Tischhauser

117. Dr Chris Holden

118. Amanda Prezioso, Nurse

119. Yacine Haffaf, Surgeon

120. Arham Ali, MD, MS. Assistant Professor; Pediatric Critical Care

121. Hamza AbdulQader, Critical Care RN

122. Rana Mahmoud, RNBSN

123. Riad Abdelkarim, MD, MHCM, FACP; Chief Medical Officer

The letter was also signed by 159 allied healthcare professionals.

Prem Thakker is a Zeteo Political Correspondent & Columnist.

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