Warning: this article contains details of injuries sustained during a terrorist attack.
Health professionals around Australia join forces to put pressure on the federal government for action in Gaza
The Medical Journal of Australia joins with medical journals around the world to call for the re-establishment of the World Health Organization’s mandate on addressing the health consequences of nuclear weapons and war.
Attacks on health care workers in conflict zones are increasing, prompting calls for physicians and medical organisations to advocate for greater protections.
A temporary ceasefire is being observed in Gaza after 15 months of conflict between Hamas and Israel. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed and many more injured. The targeting and destruction of health care facilities along with the detention and murder of health care workers has left an already health-poor population even more at risk of morbidity and mortality due to chronic disease.
With Gaza’s largest hospital in ruins, thousands of people killed, and millions displaced, health care workers yet again urge for an immediate and sustained ceasefire.
There are fears for the lives of thousands of displaced civilians in southern Gaza, who were sheltering in the grounds of a major hospital in Khan Yunis, with Médecins Sans Frontières now declaring “nowhere in Gaza is safe”.
As negotiations continue on a possible ceasefire in Gaza, intense fighting has brought the health system in the region to near collapse.
