Dear Leadership of the American Medical Association,

On behalf of our colleagues, including the detained physician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, we, the undersigned healthcare professionals, urge the AMA to take immediate action against the ongoing targeting of healthcare workers, the destruction of medical facilities, and the genocide unfolding in Gaza (Amnesty International 2024). These atrocities violate the Geneva Conventions and fundamental principles of medical neutrality. The AMA must act to protect the sanctity of healthcare and uphold its commitment to human rights.

Gaza’s healthcare system has been systematically dismantled. Hospitals–typically places of healing and safety–are being reduced to rubble, leaving millions of civilians, particularly children, without access to care. Over 88% of health facilities in North Gaza were damaged in the six weeks following Oct 7, 2023, compared to the 10% of health facilities damaged over an entire year of war in Ukraine (Robinson-Shah 2024). Basic but critical supplies, such as tourniquets, anesthetics, and antibiotics, are currently embargoed, forcing doctors to perform surgeries with bare blades and minimal resources.

A recent UN report found the collective capacity across all of Gaza to be 1,800 hospital beds to serve over 2 million people, horrifically below the number needed to treat over 105,000 directly injured by the occupation forces and 12,000 people on waiting lists requiring urgent evacuation for treatment (UN 2025). Kamal Adwan Hospital was raided and bombed, and its operating rooms set on fire under unfounded accusations that it was being used for military purposes (Da Silva 2024). Physicians like Dr. Abu Safiya have been unlawfully detained, their only crime being their refusal to abandon their patients, something any of us as physicians would be compelled to do. It is staggering to note that more than 1,000 of our healthcare colleagues have been killed in Gaza, most recently, Dr Thabet Saleem, one of the few remaining neonatologists.

The situation is especially dire for Gaza’s children. According to a recent report (CTCCM 2024):
- 96% of children in Gaza fear imminent death,
- 83% experience constant exhaustion, and
- Nearly half wish to die due to the relentless violence and deprivation they face daily.

These statistics reveal the profound mental and physical toll of this conflict on the most vulnerable. This toll is not limited to Gaza: healthcare workers worldwide grapple with moral injury and grief. The Sick From Genocide movement exemplifies the deep ethical wounds inflicted on those witnessing these atrocities amidst the silence of leading healthcare organizations.

The AMA’s silence on Gaza contrasts sharply with its swift condemnation of civilian harm in other conflicts (American Medical Association 2022, Malik 2024). This inaction risks undermining the very principles that define our profession. The AMA’s own Civil and Human Rights policy (D-65.993) mandates the profession to:

- Implore all parties at all times to understand and minimize the health costs of war on civilian populations generally and the adverse effects of physician persecution in particular.

- Support the efforts of physicians around the world to practice medicine ethically in any and all circumstances, including during wartime, episodes of civil strife, or sanctions and condemn the military targeting of health care facilities and personnel and using denial of medical services as a weapon of war, by any party, wherever and whenever it occurs.

- Advocate for the protection of physicians’ rights to provide ethical care without fear of persecution.

The deliberate targeting of healthcare facilities and workers constitutes war crimes under international law, according to Article 12 of the 1977 Geneva Convention (AP-1 1977). The AMA has an ethical and professional obligation to act. We implore the AMA to use its organizational powers to advocate immediately for the following:

1. Call for an end to the bombing of hospitals and attacks on healthcare and aid workers by Israel in Gaza

2. Call for the protection of children in Gaza and the immediate release of pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and other healthcare workers from detention

3. Call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the ongoing genocide to allow health operations to resume

4. Support a comprehensive and immediate embargo on weapons to Israel and divestment from Israel to stop the ethnic cleansing of civilians and destruction of healthcare

5. Advocate for unrestricted humanitarian and medical access to Gaza and an end to the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories

6. Adopt the medical definition of Genocide, acknowledging that genocide is a significant public health threat, triggering long-term crises, and requires urgent inter-disciplinary preventive strategies

7. Establish healthcare education and training at your institution for patient-facing staff to provide informed care to patients affected by war crimes, crimes against humanity, and sickness from genocide

We urge the AMA to lead with courage and integrity. By advocating for the protection of healthcare workers and civilians in Gaza, the AMA can reaffirm its commitment to the sanctity of healthcare and human life. The world is watching, and history will remember those who chose to stand for justice.

If the AMA does not make tangible efforts to meet the above by February 19th, the organization risks losing a large contingent of its members who believe that this body no longer represents them or its fundamental mission.

References:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/8668/2024/en
https://stanforddaily.com/2024/11/21/excessive-harm-in-israels-gaza-offensive
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1158741
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-hamas-war-idf-director-kamal-adwan-hospital-raid-detained-rcna185728
https://doctorsagainstgenocide.org/medical-genocide-def
https://www.msf.org/strikes-raids-and-incursions-year-relentless-attacks-healthcare-palestine
https://www.warchild.net/news/new-study-gaza-children-psychological-toll/
https://doctorsagainstgenocide.org/sick-from-genocide
https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/senseless-war-ukraine-sparks-physician-aid-response
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/12/the-willful-and-dangerous-silence-of-the-u-s-medical-establishment-on-gaza
https://policysearch.ama-assn.org/policyfinder/detail/D-65.993?uri=%2FAMADoc%2Fdirectives.xml-0-1972.xml
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.34_AP-I-EN.pdf