We condemn all attacks on health facilities, such as the recent bombing of the Khan Yunis hospital in Gaza, and call on the UN and our national governments to strongly urge the belligerent governments to safeguard the sick and wounded, as well as medical and nursing staff, hospitals and mobile health facilities, in war-torn places, in accordance with the dictates of the Geneva Conventions.
In Gaza, as in the Ukraine, South Sudan and other conflicts around the world, there are systematic violations of international conventions: it is absolutely intolerable that health workers and the sick, who are already suffering from their illnesses, from defenceless human beings can be subjected to military attacks.
We are deeply concerned about doctors working in hospitals and international agencies, because they are exposed to military attacks, putting their lives at risk. To them we express our closeness, our solidarity, and our thanks because they are the true witnesses of peace in times of war.
We call for respect for the Geneva Conventions, in particular Article 18 of Geneva Convention No. 4, which states: “Civil hospitals organised to provide care for the wounded, the sick, the infirm and nursing mothers shall not, under any circumstances, be attacked; they shall, at all times, be respected and protected by the belligerent Parties”.
Our appeal to the belligerent parties – in the vivid memory of the testimonies at the recent conference in Ðakovo (Croatia) on doctors in times of war – is to consider hospitals not as settings for war, but as places of care, and to always respect medical personnel and the sick, and to allow the release of humanitarian aid and supplies of medicines and medical supplies.
FEAMC Presidency
