- A letter from Israeli doctors legitimizing the bombing of hospitals in Gaza has been condemned in Israel and the Gaza Strip.
- Doctors accuse Hamas of using hospitals as “terror headquarters.”
- The text was condemned by other Israeli doctors.
The initiative was condemned in both Israel and the Gaza Strip. A letter has been circulating on social networks and Israeli websites since the beginning of the week. Israeli doctors legitimize attacks on hospitals in Gaza. These caregivers accuse Hamas of “establishing terrorist headquarters in hospitals.”
“This murderous terrorist organization spares no means and commits brutal murders and unprecedented atrocities against people, women and children,” write these doctors, who band together under the name “Doctors for the Rights of IDF Soldiers.” Therefore, any place where its operatives hide and/or are used for terrorist activities is a legitimate target for destruction.”
The doctors add that “ambulances” are “available” for patients “to evacuate them to the south.”
“The signatories of the letter represent only a small minority of the medical community.”
Gynecologist Hannah Katan*, one of the 90 signatories of the letter, justified her letter to Radio 103 fm with the need to protect Israeli soldiers in the war against Hamas: “We are not prepared for the army to take a stand.” where it is “Putting soldiers in harm’s way to protect terrorists who are using the hospital as a weapon.”
The text was condemned by other Israeli doctors: “It appears from the letter that its authors view civilians in these hospitals as legitimate targets – as if they could choose to leave the hospital; as if there was a safe way out and another hospital that could take her,” responded the Physicians for Human Rights Israel association. “Fortunately, the signatories of the letter represent only a small minority of the medical community, while the vast majority continue to work to save lives – no matter whose life they are,” continued the members of this association.
In a video distributed on X, Palestinian doctors condemn also the text in which a “betrayal” of the medical profession is denounced.
On November 3, the Israeli army attacked an ambulance outside Al-Chifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip. According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, the attack left 15 dead and 60 injured. For the Israeli army, the ambulance was a “Hamas terrorist cell.”
*We were contacted by 20 Minutes and had not responded to our inquiries at the time of writing.