Medical Body Urged to Demand Release of Imprisoned Palestinian Health Workers

As the World Medical Association convenes its General Assembly in Rotterdam this week, the international president of Doctors Without Borders is calling on delegates to place the fate of detained Palestinian medical personnel at the center of their deliberations, arguing that the gathering represents a critical test of whether the organization's ethical commitments carry real weight.

More than 1,700 healthcare workers have lost their lives during the conflict in Gaza, according to the article, while hundreds of others have been taken into Israeli custody without formal charges. Physicians, nurses and paramedics who chose to remain at their posts treating the wounded have themselves become victims of the war, creating a crisis that extends far beyond the individuals directly affected.

The author, Javid Abdelmoneim, who serves as international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), writes that when medical staff are killed, imprisoned or disappeared, the consequences ripple outward to the patients who depend on them. He contends that the World Medical Association must address the situation facing its Palestinian colleagues not merely as a topic for discussion but as a fundamental measure of whether the global body governing medical ethics still upholds the principles it publicly espouses.

The WMA took what the author describes as an important step last year by adopting a resolution focused on protecting healthcare in conflict zones. That measure, he writes, represented a welcome reaffirmation of medical neutrality. The challenge now, however, is translating that commitment into concrete action by ensuring every member medical association explicitly supports the resolution and leverages its influence to push governments toward meaningful intervention.

To illustrate what is at stake, the author points to the case of Dr Hussam Abu Safia, a paediatrician who served as head of Kamal Adwan Hospital. At the time Israeli forces stormed the facility in December 2024, it was the last hospital still functioning in northern Gaza. Dr Abu Safia has now been held for more than 22 months without any charge being brought against him, under a legal framework known as Israel's Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows for indefinite detention.

Reports indicate that Dr Abu Safia continues to endure prolonged solitary confinement, physical beatings, severe weight loss and untreated pre-existing medical conditions, according to the article. An international petition advocating for his release has gathered signatures from more than 970 medical professionals representing 41 countries, demonstrating significant concern within the global medical community.

The author also highlights the case of Dr Mazen al-Rantisi, a 71-year-old family physician from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank who is widely known as the "doctor of the poor." Dr al-Rantisi was arrested in June during a pre-dawn raid on his home, adding to what the author characterizes as a pattern of detaining medical personnel.

A third case involves Dr Mohammed Hassan Ali Obeid, a 43-year-old Palestinian orthopaedic surgeon and father of three who has worked as a longtime colleague of MSF. Dr Obeid has been held under the Unlawful Combatants Law in Israel for more than 600 days without charge, according to the article.

While some detained health workers have been released over time, the author notes that more than 80 remain in Israeli custody, alongside at least a dozen others arrested from the West Bank. The continued detention of these individuals, he argues, raises serious questions about the protection of medical personnel in conflict zones.

The World Health Organization has documented 1,000 attacks on healthcare facilities and workers that resulted in more than 1,000 deaths and 1,700 injuries in Gaza since October 7, 2023, the article states. Approximately 90 percent of Gaza's health infrastructure has been destroyed or damaged during the same period. In August 2025, United Nations experts characterized the systematic destruction of the health system as "medicide," a term suggesting the deliberate annihilation of medical capacity.

The situation in the West Bank presents its own set of concerns, even though no wartime emergency provides justification for restrictions there. The WHO has similarly documented more than 1,000 attacks on healthcare in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, resulting in 42 deaths and at least 218 injuries, according to the article.

Ambulances are routinely stopped at checkpoints and their crews detained, the author writes. Medics attempting to reach people injured in settler attacks have themselves been obstructed from providing care. Patients requiring dialysis or oncology treatment remain at home because checkpoints make reaching medical facilities impossible. Healthcare workers have been shot, detained and killed during Israeli military operations, according to the article.

The author argues that these actions collectively represent a deliberate and systematic effort to dismantle the capacity of Palestinians to provide medical care to their own population. He describes this as consistent with what he characterizes as a blatant disregard for Palestinian life.

The WMA Assembly, the author urges, should speak directly about the situation and issue a public call for the release of detained Palestinian doctors, specifically naming Abu Safia, al-Rantisi and Obeid. It should demand independent access to those still being held and support independent investigations into attacks on healthcare in both Gaza and the West Bank, with findings made public regardless of where they lead.

The author frames the Rotterdam assembly as an opportunity to apply collective pressure on fellow medical associations, political authorities and relevant bodies to take meaningful action. He describes the obligation before delegates as a duty that reaffirms the founding proposition of the WMA: that membership in the organization carries an ethical responsibility that should not vary based on geography or political alliances.

The fundamental principle at stake, the author concludes, is that healthcare workers must never be treated as targets. Either a white coat is worth protecting everywhere, he writes, or it is protected nowhere. The true test is not whether medical professionals affirm these principles in comfortable settings, but whether they uphold them when doing so matters most.