30 UK medics back from Gaza tell Starmer and Lammy to end arms to Israel

‘Everyone in Gaza is sick, injured or both’, say distraught health workers

A group of thirty UK doctors and health workers who have volunteered in Gaza during Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people there have written to Keir Starmer and his Foreign Secretary David Lammy – both ardent Zionists – about the horrors they have witnessed there, the torture of their Palestinian medical colleagues by Israeli forces and the threats they have faced since returning to the UK amid the government’s demonisation of those standing in solidarity with the Palestinians against genocide.

They go on to demand an end to UK arms shipments to Israel and further action to end the slaughter, starvation and isolation of Gaza’s more than two million people.

They write:

We are a multi-faith and multi-ethnic group, united not by any political motivation, but by the desire to care for those who are suffering. The Constitution of the World Health Organization states: ‘The health of all peoples is fundamental to the attainment of peace and security and is dependent on the fullest cooperation of individuals and States.’ It is in this spirit that we write to you, and it is in this spirit that we realise that we cannot remain silent about what we saw in Gaza.

With only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured, or both. This includes every national aid worker, every international volunteer, and every man, woman, and child.

Amidst raids, bombings, and destruction of Gaza’s hospitals, many of our Palestinian healthcare colleagues were kidnapped by Israeli forces. During their detention, which lasted for weeks or months, almost all reported experience of physical and psychological abuse, mistreatment including torture and sexual abuse including being stripped naked, and other cruel and inhumane punishments – punishments given them solely for their being doctors. When returning to the United Kingdom, meanwhile, some of us have faced harassment, including threats of murder and violence, from which we have not been protected by the NHS nor Police.

We repeat: we are not politicians driven by political agendas. We are simply medical professionals who feel duty bound to speak out about what we saw in Gaza. Our duty is to our patients, to our fellow healthcare workers still in Gaza and to humanity. It is the same principle of duty many of us apply to our day-to-day work in the NHS as we did in Gaza as well. Every day that the United Kingdom continues supplying weapons and munitions to Israel is another day
that the Palestinian men, women and children of Gaza are killed and maimed by weapons, including those manufactured in the UK.

Read the full letter with signatures here.

Keir Starmer has backed Israel’s ‘right’ to attack Gaza and even to cut off food, water and fuel. In opposition, he and his front bench demanded the release of the Tory government’s legal advice on the lawfulness of continuing UK arms shipments to Israel. In government, he has continued to withhold the advice.

David Lammy and his boss continue to delay any action over UK arms sales to Israel. One of Lammy’s senior diplomats resigned this month accusing the UK government of complicity in Israel’s ‘unquestionable’ war crimes.

Israel has murdered around 200,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, including more than 160 journalists, alongside Palestinian and overseas health and aid workers killed in targeted attacks. UK and US citizens are among the health and aid workers murdered, yet the UK and US governments continue to support and arm Israel’s genocide.

The UK ‘mainstream’ media, at the time of writing, have ignored the doctors’ letter.

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