For first time, Prof. Zion Hagay, President of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA), calls on Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) to ensure the entry of medical supplies and basic humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. In the letter, Hagay references a report from the Gaza Health Ministry claiming that 73 people were killed while waiting for humanitarian aid on last Sunday. “If this is accurate, it represents a serious violation of medical ethics and international law,” Hagay writes.
According to Israeli organization Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), “For the past twenty months, we have watched with deep dismay as the Israeli medical establishment continues its ongoing moral failures. History teaches us that such sustained and brutal acts by governments and militaries are only possible with the explicit or implicit support of civil society. In times marked by hatred and violence, it has always been the role of medical professionals to uphold humanity, compassion, and the core tenets of medical ethics.”
“Starvation is a war crime”, anti-occupation activists protest in front the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on July 21, 2025, calling for an end to the war in Gaza (Photo: Activestills)
“It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the IMA has grievously failed in its duty to uphold medical ethics. It had clear alternatives: it could have investigated allegations that Israeli medical personnel were complicit in acts of torture; advocated for the protection of Palestinian healthcare workers and medical facilities targeted during Israeli attacks; defended Palestinian citizens of Israel working in the healthcare system who were unjustly persecuted for alleged ‘terror support’; and held accountable Israeli physicians who posted genocidal content on social media. Instead, the IMA not only ignored these serious concerns but actively embraced official state narratives, placing sole blame for the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system, mass killings, and forced starvation and displacement on Hamas,” PHR says.
According to PHR, “A growing number of healthcare professionals in Israel are speaking out unequivocally against the assault on Gaza, the violation of its residents’ right to health, and the targeting of our colleagues – Gaza’s healthcare workers. Increasingly, physicians are declaring that the IMA does not speak for them, and they are urging the broader medical community not to remain silent. In the face of Gaza’s decimated healthcare system, the killing of more than 1,400 healthcare workers, and the illegal detention of 400 more, Israel’s medical community must raise its voice clearly and strongly.”
In addition, The World Health Organization (WHO) says that its staff residence and main warehouse in Gazan city of Deir al-Balah were attacked three times on Monday. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the occupation forces entered the UN agency’s staff residence, forced women and children to evacuate on foot, and handcuffed, stripped and interrogated male staff at gunpoint. Two WHO staff and two family members were detained, three of whom were later released while the other remains in detention, according to Tedros.
“WHO demands the immediate release of the detained staff and protection of all its staff,” he says. Tedros also says “the latest evacuation order in Deir al-Balah has affected several WHO premises, compromising our ability to operate in Gaza and pushing the health system further towards collapse.” WHO’s main warehouse located in Deir al-Balah is within the evacuation zone and was damaged yesterday when an attack caused explosions and a fire inside,” he adds.
According to Zo Haderekh and Palestinian media outlets, a special unit of the Israeli occupation army launched an operation near an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) field hospital west of Khan Younis. Witnesses say Israeli commandos opened fire on civilians sitting outside a nearby cafeteria before targeting an ambulance escorting Dr. Marwan Shafiq Al-Hams, the director of field hospitals in Gaza and former head of the Mohammed Yousef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah.
Among the victims of the gunfire was journalist Tamer al-Zaanin. Another journalist, Ibrahim Abu Sh’aiba, was wounded in the same incident. The ambulance driver accompanying Dr. Al-Hams also sustained injuries after Israeli forces fired on the vehicle. Dr. Al-Hams was forcibly taken by Israeli forces and transported to an interrogation centre in Rafah, according to Quds News Network and the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Earlier this month, Al-Hams warned that 47 percent of essential medicines in Gaza had been fully depleted, and that fuel stocks were insufficient to keep health facilities operating for even a single day. Speaking to the BBC in June, he described the chaos inside Gaza’s Nasser Medical Complex: “We originally had space for 25 beds,” he said. “Now we have 42 patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit. They need blood, and we cannot find any.”
In May, Al-Hams participated in a legal and advocacy webinar titled: Starvation as a Weapon: International Legal Responsibilities and the Diplomatic Convoy to Confront Deliberate Famine in Gaza. His presentation drew a grim picture of Gaza’s healthcare system, saying, “Hospitals are overflowing with patients and the wounded, especially in intensive care and specialized units. There are no free beds — the only way a bed becomes available is if someone dies.”
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32852
