By Lori Maria Walton and Ikram Mezghani
In Gaza, health and education professionals have faced targeted violence for two years. The lives and professional dignity of healthcare workers must be protected everywhere, in compliance with the Hippocratic Oath and Geneva Conventions.
Over the past two years, our Palestinian medical and academic colleagues in Gaza have been systematically targeted, killed, displaced, and their voices and stories silenced. Conservative reports estimate that over 2,000 healthcare workers, 700 humanitarian aid workers, 1200 professors, and more than 13,000 students have been killed by Israel during the Gaza genocide. Additionally, over 180,000 people have been critically injured, creating an even greater need for medical and healthcare professionals. Israel’s deliberate targeting has left all of Gaza’s hospitals and universities in ruins, systematically erasing life and learning. This destruction is partly funded by the US$21.7 billion in arms sent to Israel.
The Hippocratic Oath, “Do no harm,” is taught in universities and requires medical providers to act to preserve life and prevent suffering without discrimination. Medical providers, university professors, and students share an ethical commitment: to protect life, seek truth, and serve humanity. Healthcare workers dedicate their careers to saving lives, reducing suffering, and maintaining human dignity. Professors and students pledge to oppose misinformation, coercion, even silence, and to protect academic truth as a way to safeguard life and dignity. In Gaza, professionals – doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurses, social workers, faculty, and students – are trained, and train others, to preserve life and knowledge, yet they have faced relentless and targeted violence for the past two years.
There is no doubt that the destruction of Gaza’s health and academic infrastructure is a violation of human rights and, under the Geneva Conventions, constitutes war crimes and crimes against humanity. The deliberate targeting or killing of medical providers or the destruction of hospitals violates Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that “hospitals must be respected and protected,” and Article 24, which states that “medical personnel must be protected and cannot be attacked.”
The genocide in Gaza has severely impacted women’s and children’s rights. Out of the confirmed 68,000 people killed, 200,000 are missing and presumed dead beneath the rubble, with another 180,000 critically injured. Of these victims, 78 percent are women and children. When healthcare workers in Gaza or anywhere else are killed in airstrikes, detained, or prevented from providing care, it constitutes a systemic breach of ethical and legal duties and a failure to uphold the universal medical vow to “do no harm.”
The silent response from universities, medical and health professional organizations, various human rights groups, women’s and children’s rights organizations, and other professional bodies during the ongoing and relentless human rights violations against our colleagues in Gaza signifies a severe moral and ethical failure. While the medical code of ethics requires healthcare professionals to protect and advocate for the most vulnerable populations, and academic freedom mandates defending scholars and students from political and physical threats, many institutions have remained silent or have actively silenced others. They have also punished, fired, expelled, and arrested professors, students, doctors, and others for speaking out about the genocide in Gaza across institutions worldwide.
Silence is lethal. By failing to advocate for healthcare workers, professors, and students in Gaza, these academic institutions and professional organizations sent a dangerous message – that it was acceptable to violate international laws and target our colleagues studying in schools and colleges or working in hospitals, clinics, and universities. This reveals a biased attitude about whose lives and rights are protected, and suggests that our lives, worldwide, are ultimately not safeguarded.
Support for justice in Gaza begins with justice for academic and healthcare professionals who dedicate their lives to healing and recovery, guided by the oath of “do no harm.” While systematic targeting and the lack of protection for healthcare workers in “medical neutral zones” became a routine during the Israeli-led genocide, we must not let this become the “new normal” for anyone moving forward.
We must remember that the genocide of the Palestinian people that escalated after October 7, 2023, was not the start of the siege for healthcare workers and faculty across Gaza. For the last 76 years, Palestinians in Gaza have endured the structural impacts of violence due to Israeli occupation, including multiple blockades – one lasting over 16 years before this current genocide. These blockades have caused shortages of medicine, electricity, and fuel, making it difficult or often impossible to provide basic medical care.
Showing up to work as a healthcare worker in Gaza has always been an act of courage and a demonstration of resistance and resilience that most people will never experience in their lifetime.
Yet, the destruction goes beyond hospitals and affects all of Gaza’s universities. Places like the Islamic University of Gaza and al-Azhar University, symbols of hope, heritage, and knowledge in the region, were destroyed, forcing students, faculty, and staff to leave classrooms, research labs, and learning behind indefinitely. Students training to become the next generation of doctors, nurses, dentists, physical and occupational therapists, social workers, scientists, teachers, and other essential societal pillars are, instead, coping with the ongoing trauma of repeated forced displacements and daily losses of family, friends, and colleagues.
The so-called ‘ceasefire’ has brought no relief. First, it is being violated by Israel every day; daily life in Gaza remains a nightmare. Palestinians face the erratic terror of Israeli violence, relentless drone surveillance (Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha, a music teacher in Gaza, created a song in sync with the drones to help children deal with the trauma), and the devastating aftermath of returning to homes that have been destroyed.
Many Gazans have family members still trapped under rubble, and the entire population lives under the haunting reality of a society that hunted them down, while simultaneously imprisoning them and preventing anyone from leaving to safety. Faculty, who once guided research on rehabilitation, neurology, or public health have become victims themselves, suffering from amputation, traumatic head injuries, and other critical injuries that leave them with lifelong disabilities and in need of ongoing medical treatment and care.
Targeting Gaza’s medical and academic infrastructure violates multiple international legal agreements. The Geneva Conventions protect hospitals and clinics, while UNESCO provides protections for universities, schools, and places of worship. However, these protections have been repeatedly ignored, leaving healthcare workers, faculty, and students exposed to ongoing violence, constant displacement, and the intentional destruction of the medical expertise needed to help a population experiencing active genocide and ethnic cleansing. Silence from major global organizations in the fields of academia, medicine, health, and human rights – including advocates for women’s and children’s rights – only worsens this injustice.
US healthcare organizations must show care. The American Medical Association (AMA), American Nursing Association (ANA), American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), and others, worldwide, failed to make clear statements and hesitated to speak openly about the issue in Gaza. It was as if their members were committing heresy by asking for our colleagues in Gaza to live! Universities across America contributed to creating an environment where pro-humanity, anti-war, and anti-genocide voices were silenced, gagged, gaslighted, and deflected on campus, simply for asking to stop the killing of Gaza’s people and to end US complicity by halting the use of tax dollars to send arms to Israel.
We all must continue to speak out and demand that the “Do no harm” oath be applied to protecting the people of Gaza and seeking justice for Palestinians through independent investigations into attacks on medical and academic staff. We all must also insist on substantial US-led support for rebuilding hospitals and educational institutions. Professional solidarity among medical workers, academic faculty, and students – with funding, partnerships, and policy advocacy – must accompany our moral clarity and outrage to ensure accountability and prevent future injustices and atrocities. Justice must mean ending the hypocrisy embedded in our own American society. The sanctity of life must be upheld for all people, regardless of their country of origin, race, background, or religion.
The lives and professional dignity of healthcare workers must be protected everywhere. If physicians, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, social workers, faculty, and students matter in New York City, London, or Tel Aviv, they must be protected just as much in Gaza City, Rafah, or Khan Younis. Professional medical organizations, medical boards, and academic unions need to find their voices, after months of silence, to condemn attacks on Palestinian educators, students, and healthcare workers, and actively advocate for safe humanitarian and educational access for everyone. They should oppose harmful visa-ban policies and push for entry visas so the most vulnerable patients can receive medical care from organizations like Heal Palestine.
Globally, meaningful aid is vital. Universities should establish fellowships for displaced Palestinian scholars and students, while governments must support open visa policies. Hospitals and rehabilitation centers need to provide telehealth, mentorship, trauma and mental health services, equipment donations, and ongoing medical education. These actions offer a path for Gaza to begin healing and for professional organizations and universities, which have remained silent during genocide, to contribute to healing, rehabilitation, and academic freedom that they claim to support.
Justice for Gaza’s healers is inseparable from justice for Gaza itself. The survival of societies depends on those who heal, nurse, rehabilitate, profess, research, teach, and uphold humanity’s highest oath of “Do no harm” by dedicating their lives to others’ welfare. If the world values human rights and professional integrity, then professors, students, medical and healthcare workers must be protected wherever they practice globally, and our professional organizations must use their voices to advocate for our colleagues both here and abroad.
