MAPW has delivered a letter, signed by 449 medical doctors and students, to the Australian Medical Association.
To the AMA:
We appeal for your intervention for the protection of healthcare workers and facilities in Gaza, as Israel continues its relentless attacks on them with impunity.
The UN reports that hospitals in Gaza have become battlegrounds, and more than 1,000 healthcare workers have been killed since October 2023. Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the West Bank and Gaza, has stated that “the health sector is being systematically dismantled“.
The WHO’s Emergency Situation Update for the Occupied Palestinian Territories states that from 7 October 2023 to 14 March 2025 there were 670 attacks on health in Gaza, and 754 in the West Bank. Over that period there were over 48,500 deaths, with over 111,000 injuries in Gaza – all from a population of just over 2 million people.
The World Food Program reports that over 90% of Palestinians face acute food insecurity, as Israel blocks all food, medicine and fuel from entering Gaza.
In addition, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) reported recently on the mass arbitrary and illegal detention of Palestinian medical workers and the torture, sexual abuse, starvation, and denial of essential medical treatment they suffer while in detention. The report stated that the “lack of accountability for perpetrators further underscores the systemic nature of the issue, with victims facing ongoing violations and no legal recourse”.
The AMA’s support for the upholding of medical neutrality in Gaza, including its support for the World Medical Association (WMA) Resolution on the Protection of Healthcare in Israel and Gaza, is important. That resolution recommended critically needed steps including unimpeded and accelerated humanitarian access to all of Gaza, and a safe working environment for healthcare personnel.
However repeated calls from many organisations for respect for medical neutrality have been ignored by Israel. Far stronger action is needed.
We, the undersigned, call on the AMA to use the forthcoming 229th WMA Council Session that will be held from 24 – 26 April, to advocate not only for the urgent protection of our colleagues in Palestine, but also for accountability for the Israeli government’s targeted attacks on them and on healthcare infrastructure.
The WMA exists to promote the highest possible standards of medical ethics, and to defend the basic rights of patients and physicians. This cannot be achieved when violations of those rights and standards are glossed over by a refusal to name the perpetrator of the violations. The WMA has thus far failed to establish and uphold any accountability measures in relation to grievous violations of medical neutrality and international and humanitarian law.
We ask that the AMA propose a resolution or resolutions that explicitly address such violations, and hold perpetrators accountable.
We further ask the AMA to advocate for impartial investigation of the evidence documented by PHRI of the abuse and torture of Palestinian medical and other detainees, and all necessary accountability measures to follow.
The 229th Council Session is an opportunity for the WMA to properly address these matters and regain our confidence in its deliberations on them, and we urge the AMA to enable this to happen.