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The eight-page letter, sent Thursday to Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, said medics have seen evidence of widespread violations of international humanitarian law and laws governing the use of US weapons supplied to Israel.
In recent months, 45 surgeons, emergency room doctors, and nurses volunteering at various hospitals in Gaza have exposed the “massive humanitarian devastation caused by Israel’s attacks on Gaza, especially on women and children.”
“We cannot forget the unbearable scenes of cruelty to women and children that we have personally witnessed,” the health workers wrote in the letter.
“Each of the signatories of this letter has treated children in Gaza who have been subjected to violence that must have been deliberately directed at them. In particular, each of us has treated adolescent children who are shot in the head daily.”
According to the Guardian, some of the signatories had previously told the Guardian that they believed Israeli snipers were targeting children and reported the devastating impact on civilians of weapons designed to spray high levels of shrapnel.
Medics volunteering with the World Health Organization and other aid groups told the President that the actual death toll was much higher than the Palestinian Health Ministry’s figure of more than 39,000 dead, mostly women and children.
“The death toll in this conflict is probably more than 92,000, which is 4.2 percent of Gaza’s population,” they wrote.
The medics added that almost no one in Gaza escaped the consequences of the Israeli offensive.
“With very few exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, wounded or both. This includes every national aid worker, every international volunteer and probably every Israeli hostage: every man, woman and child,” the statement said.
The letter warned that “epidemics are rampant in Gaza” and called it “absolutely shocking” that Israel has repeatedly driven malnourished and sick civilians into areas without running water or toilets.
At the beginning of the letter, the medics dismissed accusations that they were sympathetic to the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,139 people, mostly Israelis, and kidnapped 251. It is unclear how many are still being held by Hamas in Gaza and whether they are still alive.
“None of us supports the horrors committed in Israel on October 7 by Palestinian armed groups and individuals,” the letter said.
But the letter’s signatories said the subsequent “catastrophe” in Gaza required the United States to withdraw its material support for Israel.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris, any solution to this problem must begin with an immediate and lasting ceasefire. We urge you to withdraw military, economic, and diplomatic support from the state of Israel and to join the international arms embargo on Israel and all Palestinian armed groups until a lasting ceasefire is achieved and good faith negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians bring a lasting solution to the conflict,” the statement said.
Albania News Agency
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