Australian healthcare workers sign open letters calling on government to sanction Israel
More than 1,000 Australian health professionals have signed two open letters calling on the government to sanction Israel and stop the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
One of the letters was organised by Wollongong pharmacist Yossra Aboulfadl.
She has been helping Australian doctors coming back from Gaza to share firsthand testimonies of the devastation they witnessed.
At least 94 per cent of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip are damaged or destroyed, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO recorded 697 attacks on health care facilities in Gaza since October 2023.
Top United Nations (UN) officials and independent humanitarian organisations have warned Israel is using starvation as a warfare method by blocking critical resources into Gaza.
Over four days, Ms Aboulfadl's letter was signed by about 1,050 doctors, nurses, midwives, and pharmacists from across Australia.
They have all shared their names, titles, and locations on the public letter.
Her letter, addressed to the prime minister, foreign affairs and health ministers, calls on the government to increase funding and logistical support to trusted humanitarian organisations operating in the besieged strip.
They also ask the government applies "sustained diplomatic pressure to lift the blockade and allow the unimpeded delivery of essential medical supplies, food, clean water, fuel and shelter".
Ms Aboulfadl said the letter garnered such widespread support because many health care workers had been "witnessing this humanitarian crisis every single day, it comes naturally for health professionals to speak up".
"I would like to see Australia standing up for the right thing. I would like to see sanctions to Israel. We want to be the country that says no to such violence, to such injustice," she said.
She described how many were heartbroken and traumatised by the scale of death and destruction, both to civilians, and in particular, to medical health professionals.
In April, the Israel Defense Forces admitted to killing 15 emergency workers in Gaza.
Their bodies were found in a mass grave near the wreckage of their mangled ambulances and fire trucks.
The dead included eight medics, six civil defence workers and a UN employee.
"We've been watching and witnessing this genocide for over a year and a half," Ms Aboulfadl said.
Israel rejected the genocide allegations levelled against it, brought to International Court of Justice by South Africa.
The Israeli government said 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas attack in October 2023.
According to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, Israel has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians since that date.
The letter followed an event organised by Ms Aboulfadl late last month in Wollongong.
It featured health professionals who came back from medical aid missions in Gaza recently, including executive director of Illawarra Women's Health, Sally Stevenson.
Ms Stevenson served with Médecins Sans Frontières in Gaza last year.
Last month Prime Minister Anthony Albanese commented on Israel's three-month-long aid blockade on Gaza describing it as "completely unacceptable".
"People are starving; the idea that a democratic state withholds supply is an outrage," he said.
Commenting on the Australian government's response so far, Ms Stevenson said "words have become obsolete".
"We've seen the deliberate destruction of the health system, the bombing of hospitals, the use of starvation and gender-based violence as weapons of war, we've seen babies burned and children mutilated," she said.
A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia had committed $100 million in humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza and Lebanon since October 2023.
"Like the UK, Canada and other partners, Australia has condemned and sanctioned Israeli extremists for their violence against Palestinians," they said.
"Along with partners, Australia has been pressing Israel to immediately allow the rapid and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
"We continue to call on all parties to return to the ceasefire and hostage deal."
Ms Stevenson said removing the blockade, allowing unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza, and an immediate ceasefire are the minimum expectations of the Australian government to demand of Israel.
She said the government needed "to step up as signatories to the treaties that protect life when there is conflict".
A second letter organised by the Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand Doctors for Palestine has been signed by 900 Australians doctors.
The letter also emphasised the urgency of government action to stop the "systematic dismantling of Gaza's health care system" and called for "immediate and targeted sanctions on Israel".
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