Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November/December 2026, pp. 16-17, 19
Special Report
By Delinda C. Hanley
MORE THAN 200 medical professionals, psychiatrists and human rights advocates from around the country gathered on Capitol Hill to honor the doctors and healthcare workers abducted and killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza and demand accountability. Doctors Against Genocide (DAG) members shared brief testimonies before heading off in groups for more than 30 meetings with congressional offices.
Retired emergency room physician John Reuwer, a DAG leader, was among the activists from the Freedom Flotilla kidnapped by Israeli forces in April 2026. He reminded his fellow doctors of the words attributed to Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” He affirmed that DAG is one group of committed citizens that “will continue to speak out for our colleagues, for our patients and for all of humanity.”
SPEAKING UP FOR GAZA’S HEALTHCARE SYSTEM AND WORKERS
Dr. Reuwer called for the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the pediatrician, neonatologist and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who has been held without charge in Israel’s notorious Ofer Prison since December 2024. DAG got to know the Gaza doctor personally soon after Israel’s invasion of Gaza as he shared first-hand reports about the wounded children overwhelming his hospital and burying his own son killed by Israeli attackers in the garden of his hospital. Dr. Abu Safiya spoke to DAG as his hospital was blown up, and he refused Israeli orders to desert his patients. “The people with the power to save Dr. Abu Safiya, other detained healthcare workers and all of Gaza work in this building behind us.”
Doctors went on to describe the dire situation in the West Bank as settler militias attack Palestinian farmers and families and Gazans continue to endure a live-streamed genocide with bombs and bullets provided by the U.S. government. They asked why there is no outcry from medical organizations. The American Medical Association and American Psychological Association expressed deep heartbreak after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, but seem to have gone mute since then.
Dr. Andrea Sorcini, a urologic oncologist working in Massachusetts, noted: “Healthcare is a fundamental human right, yet Israel has systematically and deliberately dismantled the medical system in Gaza. We are witnessing a profound humanitarian catastrophe that explicitly defies the most sacred principles of international laws. Under Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, civilian hospitals may in no circumstances be the object of attack, and under Article 38, protective humanitarian signs like the Red Crescent should guarantee their absolute immunity.”
Dr. Sorcini continued: “The scale of destruction we see today completely mocks these international treaties. Over 80 percent of Gaza’s health facilities have been damaged or reduced to rubble. The genocide doesn’t only have direct consequences but also long-lasting effects. The very earth is poisoned; toxic munitions have left the soil with radioactivity levels increased many times more than normal, embedding carcinogenic elements into the debris of daily life.”
Despite the so-called ceasefire, vital fuel, clean water and basic medical supplies cannot get inside, and thousands of critically ill patients are trapped in Gaza. “Over 14,000 people urgently require medical evacuation. Yet, with the borders effectively sealed, the current restriction allows only a handful to leave. At this agonizingly slow rate, it will take over 30 years to evacuate every patient in need. This timeline is a death sentence.”
He concluded, “It is past time for indifference. Our representatives cannot look away.”
“OUR POLITICIANS ARE GASLIGHTING US”
Dr. Adlah Sukkar shared her personal experience. “My family has been slaughtered by [our] tax dollars in every way you could possibly imagine. We’ve had family members, multigenerational families leveled in buildings, 34 killed at a time. We had a young 14-year-old slaughtered by one of those militarized machine gun drones when he went out to get bread for his family. We had family that went by caravan along what Israel said was a safe route and they bombed the entire caravan. We had an infant freeze to death on the Rafah border.”
A devastated Gaza enters its fourth winter while 60,000 housing units which have been sitting on the Egyptian border for two years have been prevented by Israel from entering the Gaza Strip. Dr. Sukkar, who is from Louisiana, said that’s like saying after Hurricane Katrina, “We have all these FEMA housing units but you can’t have them. You can rot in the flood water.”
Dr. Sukkar entreated, “We are seeing the systematic destruction of a society—healthcare, hospitals, infrastructure, medicines and delivery of care used as a tool of genocide. We see it. We know it and we continue to send bombs. Our politicians are gaslighting us.”
DAG volunteers asked U.S. leaders not to send another $2.8 billion worth of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. The U.S. Leahy Law prohibits providing military assistance to units violating human rights.
“I can’t believe we’re still here begging the general public and our politicians to understand that we’re advocating for all human life. What we allow to happen in Palestine we’re going to allow to happen here. We’ve seen it. We’ve seen the militarization of our society. We see ICE in our hospitals and it’s just going to get worse. There is no being quiet enough or small enough to protect us from what’s coming. There has never been a more important time for you to be loud and proudly declare that you are against genocide. To borrow a phrase from one of my colleagues there is nothing more professional or ethical than being a doctor against genocide,” she declared.
In the midst of these testimonies came the roar of a stealth bomber flanked by four F-22 Raptor fighter jets, a costly effort to impress Chinese President Xi Jinping during his state visit to Washington, DC. Some of the doctors shook their heads, others wept.
IT’S NOT COMPLICATED
Dr. Dana Ataya, a breast radiologist from Tampa, FL, said: “Today I want to speak to the person watching who has been silent. Maybe you told yourself it wasn’t your place; that it was too complicated. Maybe you thought someone braver would speak and maybe you have been silent for so long that speaking now feels too late; that speaking now feels hypocritical. I am here to tell you it is never too late to use your voice. History does not ask when people found their voice. It remembers those who did and every movement from civil rights to ending apartheid was only made possible because those who were silent decided to stand up and speak up. They were afraid and they were imperfect, but they decided to speak and stand for accountability and justice and freedom.
“As a Palestinian American physician, I know the cost of speaking, and I also know the cost of silence and it is always paid by someone else. It is paid by the children in Gaza with no surviving family. It is paid by the children in Gaza who have had their arms and legs amputated without anesthesia. It is paid by the mother with breast cancer that has progressed because chemotherapy has been blocked from entering Gaza by the Israeli government.
“It is also paid by the Palestinian physicians and healthcare workers in Gaza, who are working with limited resources and limited equipment because every single hospital in Gaza has been destroyed—many by U.S.-made bombs.
“We took an oath to do no harm. Silence in the face of preventable deaths and genocide is not neutrality. It is a choice. So, my friend, if you have been waiting for permission—this is it. If you have been waiting for the right moment, the right moment is always now. It is never too late to use your voice for what is right. One day we all will be asked, ‘Where were you?’ Let us say that we were here. Let us say that we took a stand. Let us say that we used our voices. Let us say that we joined this moment.”
Doctors Against Genocide calls for:
- An end to the obstruction of humanitarian and medical aid to Gaza
- Protection of civilians, healthcare workers and medical facilities
- The release of detained healthcare workers
- Healthcare as a human right in the United States
- Protection of immigrant communities from policies that create fear and prevent access to care
- Public investment in healthcare and human needs—not weapons and warfare
Inspired by rapper Macklemore’s pledge of $1 million and children’s educator Ms. Rachel’s matching $1 million, DAG launched “The Freedom Campaign” to raise $5 million for Gaza’s children and healthcare, including mental healthcare, pediatric care, maternal health and urgent medical relief. For more information, visit <doctorsagainstgenocide.org>.
Delinda C. Hanley is executive editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
