Palestine Statement

The humanitarian crisis in Palestine, particularly in the Gaza Strip, has been characterized by international officials such as UNRWA, WHO, the World Food Program, and Doctors Without Borders as uniquely catastrophic. Civilian infrastructures have been devastated and nearly 90% of its 2.1 million residents have suffered forced displacement since October 2023. Images of demolished communities, including housing structures, schools, and places of worship, have inundated our screens as conditions continue to worsen. 

From October 2023 to August 2025, the confirmed death toll in Gaza has reached nearly 61,944 people and 18,430 children, with an additional 155,886 injured. Although at first glance one may believe that this is solely due to gunfire or bombs, in actuality, the systemic violence via halting aid has compounded this devastation. In addition to constant bombardment and gunfire at the hands of Israeli soldiers, Gaza has faced a grid electricity blackout since October 11th, 2023. This leaves water, sewer, and the aforementioned hospitals or makeshift health clinics dependent on intermittent generators. 

On top of all of this, Palestinians in Gaza are starving in what is now confirmed to be a famine. Israel has used mass starvation as a method of warfare against Palestinians - a direct violation of international humanitarian law. Between March and May 2025, Israel imposed complete blockades to prevent food from entering Gaza and has selectively permitted aid into Gaza since then. Of the limited food entering Gaza, aid distribution sites are often unsafe to access. Vulnerable individuals - including children - have died en route to aid sites or been killed by Israeli forces firing “warning shots” at civilians gathered around aid trucks. 

Between October 2023 and June 2025, the World Health Organization documented 735 attacks on healthcare in Gaza, resulting in over 94% of hospitals being damaged or destroyed. Hospitals and ambulances have been attacked using explosive weapons with known wide area effects, causing the indiscriminate killing of civilians in hospitals. There is also apparent precision targeting by long-barreled weapons of people inside hospitals, including doctors, nurses, and other medical staff. Attacks on hospitals violate international humanitarian law and Israel has not provided sufficient evidence that hospitals are directly engaged in hostilities. 

Along with the direct destruction of medical facilities, the Israeli government has enforced a blockade that prevents essential medical supplies from reaching civilians. Over half of essential medicines and two-thirds of consumables in Gaza have been depleted, with fuel shortages further reducing clinic operations. This deliberate, excessive, unclear, unpredictable, and unjustified deprivation of resources affects every aspect of surgical and clinical care. According to Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHR-Israel), Israel has consistently prevented access to adequate  medical care for patients in Gaza. Prior to surgery, patients face excessive wait times in wards that can be 300% above capacity. During surgery, the forced reuse of scalpels and lack of anesthesia and antibiotics exacerbate dangerous conditions and inflict unbearable suffering upon patients. Following surgery, the lack of nurses and hospital rooms make patient monitoring and post-operative care almost impossible. Wound healing is also dramatically slowed by malnutrition, and currently 75% of Gaza’s population of 2.1 million face “Emergency” or “Catastrophic” levels of food deprivation, the two most severe categories on the IPC scale, which measures food insecurity and nutritional deprivation.

The blockade of medical supplies has also further intensified the health crisis in Gaza, severely worsening outcomes for patients with chronic illnesses. More than 1,100 kidney failure patients face death without dialysis, and 10,000 cancer patients have lost access to treatment. In parallel, preventable diseases, such as meningitis and Guillain-Barré syndrome, have begun to spread rapidly. Both conditions remain largely untreatable as the essential medicines are unavailable.

The destruction of hospitals, the killing of healthcare workers, the blockade of essential medical supplies, and the deliberate creation of conditions of famine have collectively dismantled Gaza’s health system. These conditions not only constitute grave breaches of international humanitarian law but also amount to the systematic destruction of a population’s ability to survive, situating the collapse of Gaza’s health system squarely within the framework of genocide.

The ongoing genocide in Gaza has deepened the forced displacement of Palestinians, adding to the decades-long refugee crisis that remains one of the largest and most protracted in modern history. For generations, Palestinians have been denied durable protections under international refugee frameworks, excluded from the UNHCR mandate, and left without meaningful asylum pathways. Today, families in Gaza are repeatedly displaced within a besieged strip of land, with no safe corridors and no recognition of their rights under international migration law. According to PHR-Israel, the West Bank and Gaza have been subjected to settler violence by Israel which has led to the forced displacement of Palestinian communities and the declaration of ethnic cleansing. This represents not only a humanitarian failure, but also a systemic failure of international migration systems that continue to exceptionalize and exclude Palestinians from basic protections afforded to others.

Recent U.S. policy decisions underscore the political use of migration to target Palestinians in Gaza. The suspension of medical and visitor visas for Palestinian children and families–including those seeking lifesaving treatment abroad–illustrates how borders and migration controls have been weaponized to create a carceral state from which there is no escape. By denying Palestinians’ avenues for refuge, asylum, or even temporary reprieve, Gazans are willfully trapped in a purgatory between exile and confinement in which displacement is the only constant.

The ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza has resulted in profound violations of reproductive rights and gender-based human rights, with catastrophic impacts on Palestinian women and girls. As of early 2024, over 52,000 pregnant persons in Gaza are navigating pregnancy under siege conditions, stripped of access to essential healthcare. With the healthcare system collapsing under relentless bombardment, most pregnant persons are unable to receive regular prenatal checkups, diagnostic testing, or adequate nutrition to –conditions that sharply increase the risks of miscarriage, anemia, infections, stillbirth, and long-term health complications for both mother and child. Médecins Sans Frontières reports patients being discharged just hours after giving birth, without monitoring or pain relief, despite the postpartum period being the most critical for detecting complications and ensuring maternal and neonatal safety. Only two partially functioning hospitals were providing maternal care as of mid-2024, and many patients have been forced to give birth in tents or damaged public buildings, often without skilled assistance or sanitation. The WHO has warned of rising maternal mortality and severe complications due to the acute shortage of 24 types of vital medications and equipment needed for safe delivery and postpartum care. 

The psychological toll of this environment is staggering: constant displacement, the trauma of fleeing airstrikes, the loss of children, and the fear of death during childbirth have caused chronic anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress among pregnant and postpartum persons. Mental distress during pregnancy is also contributing to an increase in stress-related miscarriages, premature births, and an inability to breastfeed or bond with newborns. This assault on maternal well-being has been compounded by Israel’s deliberate targeting of reproductive healthcare infrastructure, including the destruction of Gaza’s largest fertility clinic and repeated strikes on maternity hospitals such as al-Awda, placing over 540,000 persons of reproductive age at direct risk. 

Israel has conducted a deliberate and systematic assault on the children in Gaza—actions that constitute a critical component of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. Since October 2023, over 50,000 children have been killed or injured, thousands more have been orphaned, and newborns are entering a world without clean water, nutrition, or medical support. Hospitals have been bombed and fuel blockades have plunged neonatal units into darkness. In the few remaining medical facilities, incubators are reportedly shared by up to five infants at a time. These are not isolated incidents - they are part of a broader strategy of dismantling life-sustaining infrastructure for mothers and children in Gaza. 

Research shows that exposure to armed conflict is associated with increased rates of neonatal, childhood, and maternal mortality. In Gaza, these outcomes are daily realities, worsened by the ongoing Israel-imposed famine. Acute and chronic malnutrition are compounding this crisis: at least one in four children and pregnant women in Gaza are now suffering from acute malnutrition. According to PHR-Israel, 92% of infants aged six months to 2 years suffer from malnutrition. Children are not only more likely to die from injuries sustained in bombings due to the lack of medical support, but their ability to heal is also severely compromised by hunger, dehydration, and untreated infections. Malnourished children are at significantly higher risk of dying from otherwise survivable wounds and illnesses, and their long-term physical and cognitive development is being irreparably harmed. Given the intergenerational nature of trauma, each of the aforementioned mechanisms of chronic stress inflicted upon Palestinians are likely to have long-lasting impacts on child developmental outcomes and family stability for generations to come. 

It is imperative to recognize how the genocide in Gaza has adversely impacted the educational prospects for the young people of the region. Before the escalation of the genocide in October of 2023, Gaza boasted a 97% literacy rate, one of the highest in the world, along with an enrollment rate of 90% in secondary education and 47% in higher education. However, the previous two years of genocide have seen some of the most brutal attacks on educational institutions in Gaza’s history. With over 90% of educational institutions in Gaza being damaged, at least 658,000 school-aged children have lost access to learning activities, with the remaining schools being used as shelters. PHR-Israel estimates that over half a million children in Gaza are without schools or stability due to attacks from Israel. 

Israeli attacks on Gazan educational infrastructure are not new, with the 2014 Israeli operation in the region resulting in the bombing of at least 183 educational institutions and the killing of 330 children, with at least 2,000 more injured. These actions represent a deliberate effort to deprive Palestinians of safety, education, and the right to self-determination.

It is impossible not to feel a profound sense of loss as we witness the systematic targeting of journalists in Gaza. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, as of August 12, 2025, “a total of 184 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel…since its start in October 2023” These are not merely statistics; they are individuals with names, families, and stories—individuals who served as the eyes and ears of the world. When their cameras fall silent and their offices—our shared media infrastructure—are reduced to rubble, it constitutes a direct attack on the pursuit of truth. This deliberate suppression of information appears to be an attempt to sever our human connection to the people of Gaza, to ensure that their stories remain untold and their suffering unseen. 

The documentation of human rights violations has long played a central role in how history is understood. Much of what is known about past atrocities exists because journalists preserved and transmitted the truth under unimaginable conditions. To target those who bear witness is not only to obscure the present but to actively shape a future in which the narrative is controlled by those responsible for the violence. Most recently, an allegedly mistaken attack on Nasser Hospital killed 20 Palestinians, five of whom were journalists. There were two strikes, one of which hit a stairwell known to have a strong enough internet connection for journalists to use to report to the rest of the world. The killing of journalists is not collateral damage—it is a deliberate strategy of silencing, erasure, and impunity.

Research and data collection during periods of armed conflict are historically challenging and often controversial undertakings, and it will likely be many years before we can fully quantify the scale of the genocide in Gaza. However, in the past two years, there have been numerous reports from reliable governmental and non-governmental sources that illustrate the systemic humanitarian collapse that is unfolding. 

As of August 22, 2025, additional reporting from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) designated over 600,000 Palestinians in Gaza to be in a state of famine (Phase 5), with projected expansion for over 1.1 million currently in a state of food insecurity emergency (Phase 4). Other independent research has described the scale of displacement, targeting of aid, and destruction of agricultural, water, medical, and civilian infrastructure. Ongoing support for the collection and dissemination of these objective metrics will be essential for understanding and responding to the urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza.

Multiple leading human rights organizations have concluded that Israel’s actions constitute genocide. Amnesty International’s 2024 report documents Israel’s widespread attacks on civilians, destruction of infrastructure, obstruction of humanitarian aid, and the targeting of basic survival systems such as food, water, and healthcare. Scholars of genocide around the world and leading human rights organizations in Israel have been sounding the alarm that Israel’s systematic destruction of civilian life and infrastructure in Gaza constitutes an ongoing genocide. Aid blockades have triggered a famine that has already killed hundreds. The intentional destruction of hospitals, places of worship, all universities, almost all residential buildings, and almost all roads have completely undermined the ability of Palestinian society in Gaza to exist and thrive. Contemporaneously, evictions and demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank have accelerated, leading to unprecedented rates of displacement and instability there.

The attack on Palestinian lives and livelihoods has been clearly documented, and yet international governing bodies have failed to intervene. In a recent letter to the United Nations, the Palestinian people pleaded with the international community to act without delay against Israel’s clear attempt to “annihilate Palestinian existence in Gaza and to annex the entirety of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” We stand alongside the people of Gaza and urge global institutions to respond to this plea and take concrete action against these atrocities. This includes urging organizations based in the United States to advocate for the withdrawal of military funding to Israel while this genocide is ongoing. There is nothing that justifies or excuses genocide. The longer we remain silent and claim neutrality, the more Palestinians face death and devastation. It is the responsibility of governments and global institutions, especially medical and human rights committees, to use their resources to advocate for change.

Many governments and institutions across the globe have been complicit in both enabling and failing to prevent the genocide Israel is committing against the Palestinian people in Gaza, in direct contradiction of international human rights law and policy. 

We, the Physicians for Human Rights Student Advisory Board, strongly condemn the actions of the Israeli government for the atrocities committed in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.

We call on institutions, both domestic and international, to uphold principles of freedom of speech and protest for Palestinians and those standing in solidarity with them. 

We also call on state actors to halt production and exportation of arms for use by the Israeli state. 

Furthermore, we demand the United Nations and other international bodies uphold their commitment to Responsibility to Protect, demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire, hold Israeli state actors accountable for the atrocities that have been committed towards the Palestinian people, and provide immediate access to humanitarian aid including food, medical supplies and care, and resources to begin rebuilding the devastation the Gaza Strip has sustained.