Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council Urgent Statement on the Destruction of Kamal Adwan Hospital 12/27/2024
On Friday 12/27/24,Israeli military forces physically invaded, burned and destroyed Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. Critically ill patients and staff were forced to move outside and ordered to strip naked in the cold. Soldiers disconnected IV lines, turned off oxygen, and other essential medical treatments, cut off communication by the hospital staff, burned the buildings, and abducted the hospital staff–whose safety and whereabouts are unknown at this time. Kamal Adwan is the latest hospital in Gaza to have been destroyed by the Israeli military over the past 14 months of this genocide. The entire healthcare infrastructure in Gaza has been systematically targeted and destroyed impacting survival itself.
The Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council (JVP HAC) issues the following demands in response to the ongoing assault on the health system and healthcare workers in Gaza:
1) President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken must immediately call Israeli officials to account for the targeting of all hospitals and with a spotlight on Kamal Adwan. There must be a full and independent investigation into the attacks on Gaza’s health system;
2) The U.S. must abide by International and US law and
*Halt military aid to Israel immediately
*Demand a full impartial legal investigation into the actions by Israel at Kamal Adwan Hospital and report these to the ICJ and the ICC as plausible war crimes;
*All staff and patients from Kamal Adwan Hospital must be accounted for and an international body allowed full access to oversee that the staff are immediately freed unharmed, and that the patients and families are safe and receiving the care needed;
3) Demand that Israel
*Agree to an immediate and permanent ceasefire
* Allow entry of all required humanitarian aid
* Completely withdraw from Gaza and allow families to return to their homes to rebuild.
Israel has besieged the entire north of Gaza, denying food and aid, and Kamal Adwan Hospital was the last functioning medical center in that area for the past 75 days. The medical staff has been pleading for the world to pay attention. They have been sending photos and videos documenting the dire situation as Israeli forces carried out bombings in the vicinity of the hospital. Videos released to the world showed the hospital corridors overcrowded with families seeking shelter or staying at the hospital to be with their ill or injured loved ones. Most days there was little to no food or water and there has been a constant flow of incoming injured patients. The ICU, neonatal and pediatric departments, the operating rooms, oxygen tanks and other vital equipment were all targeted and partially destroyed over the past weeks. Israel has repeatedly refused access by aid convoys from international NGOs to the hospital. Humanitarian groups such as Oxfam and others have termed the level of starvation, dehydration and destruction of all infrastructure as “apocalyptic”.
Among the voices frequently raising the alarm has been Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a pediatrician and the medical director of Kamal Adwan Hospital.
“For 75 days, we have been calling on the world for international protection for the health system. These are laws established by the Geneva Conventions, which stipulate the protection of the health system. Where are these laws? What sin did we commit in this hospital to be bombed and killed in this way?” Dr. Abu-Safiya, 12/24/24
“We urgently need repairs related to water and oxygen supplies, but we have not received anything so far. We appeal to the international community to open a humanitarian corridor and allow the entry of medical supplies, equipment and ambulances so that we can provide safe medical services.” Dr Abu Safiya, 12/19/2024
In the past 48 hours Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last remaining lifeline in the north of Gaza has been closed down, burned and destroyed. It is incomprehensible and it is devastating to witness.
“The Israeli Military’s decision to resume attacks on an already damaged and under siege hospital whilst 400 civilians remain trapped inside, including babies in neonatal care, is a further violation of international law,” said Mahmoud Shalabi, Medical Aid for Palestinians’ deputy director in northern Gaza.
The Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council (JVP HAC) issues this statement as primarily Jewish health professionals to call out the unconscionable silence and complicity of our government in this ongoing genocide in Gaza that is being carried out with our dollars and in our names. What is being carried out by Israel in Gaza has nothing to do with Jewish safety, but is rather the horrific policies of a nation born of settler colonialism and with the goal of ethnic cleansing the people of Gaza and, indeed, all Palestinians.
We have not been silent over the past 14 months, and we will not ever be silenced until the day when all who live between the river and the sea are afforded full equality, freedom, safety and justice. We speak out with moral integrity from the depths of our Jewish and healthcare values.
We urge all healthcare workers to take action and use your voice to lift up the demands in this statement.
1. Call The White House comment line at 202-456-1111; email President Biden at comments@whitehouse.gov
