As dedicated healthcare professionals, our commitment extends universally. We view hospitals as sanctuaries where humanity seeks solace and care during times of vulnerability. The targeting of hospitals and healthcare professionals strikes at the very core of our principles.

The 4th Geneva Convention, Article 18, states that “civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected.” The requirement of specific intent for war crimes is not a prerequisite for violations of the Geneva Convention. UN Resolution 2286, unanimously adopted by the Security Council in 2016, also declares that attacks against hospitals and medical personnel are war crimes. 

“It’s easy to become numb to the horror, to lose our ability to feel shock and outrage, but we can never let the crimes Russia is committing become our new normal” Secretary Anthony Blinken warned the UN Security Council in February 2023. “Bombing schools and hospitals and apartment buildings to rubble is not normal.” Blinken advised the invasion of Ukraine is a betrayal of the Security Council’s peacekeeping mandate

The United States government’s response towards Ukraine was mirrored across healthcare and academic institutions in the United States. In the Bay Area, for example, concerted efforts were made at Stanford, UCSF, Sutter Health and the Bay Area Global Health Alliance to donate to Ukraine, release statements, start mental health and telehealth initiatives, and highlight profiles of humanitarians, medical practitioners and academics in solidarity with Ukraine.  

“As a Ukrainian American, I also stand in solidarity with people under occupation,” emphasizes former Bernie Sanders adviser, Matt Duss. “The Palestinians are facing a much more powerful neighbor, the Israelis, who are in many ways trying to do to the Palestinians what Russia is trying to do to Ukraine.” Unlike Ukraine, however, there has been no substantive response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Instead, communications have used selective language that prioritize Israeli lives and sidestep any direct acknowledgment of Israel’s actions. There has also been an alarming rise in harassment and intimidation for expressing Palestinian solidarity. Anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamophobia has given way to censuring, doxxing, job loss, and physical attacks. 

The systematic decimation of Gaza and its health system defies exaggeration. Leaders of the world’s largest global humanitarian organizations lament that “we have seen nothing like the siege of Gaza.” Israeli attacks have put 28 hospitals out of service, including all hospitals in the north of the strip. The certainty that Al Shifa hospital and other hospitals in Gaza served as Hamas command centers has been exposed as cynical propaganda. Only 9 hospitals are partially functional, working at triple capacity with no electricity, limited fuel and a scarcity of essential supplies according to the World Health Organization. 

The double standard shown towards Israeli targeting of hospital sanctuaries, healthcare professionals and civilians in Gaza raises profound ethical concerns. As a signatory of the Geneva Convention, the United States bears legal obligations to ensure respect for international humanitarian law. Instead, the Biden administration is working to prevent a conference on Geneva Convention violations.

It is imperative that we demonstrate the same unwavering dedication to compassion, impartiality, ethics, and justice in Gaza as we have consistently done for Ukraine.

Published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Posted here with hyperlink citations.

Aly Mohamed, MD is affiliated with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Sutter Health in Santa Cruz.