NJ doctors decry Al-Shifa Gaza hospital turmoil, slam lack of medical community support

CLIFTON — About 50 health care workers decried the Israeli focus on Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza and called for a cease-fire in the monthlong war between Israel and Hamas at a gathering Saturday at the Palestinian American Community Center.

Hoisting a large banner that read "Healthcare Workers Against Genocide," doctors, nurses, EMS technicians and others called on American medical groups to be more forceful in denouncing the siege of the region's largest hospital, which Israeli and U.S. officials believe is a Hamas command center. They said too many innocent civilians are being harmed in both the fighting and the lack of adequate medical care.

"The deafening silence within the medical community and the oppressive pressure to remain silent in the face of these atrocities has forced us to question not only our ethical compass but our duty to the broader health care community," Dr. Amal Al-Shrouf, a Paterson pulmonologist, said in a speech read to those gathered at the center.

Saturday's event was the latest in what have been scores of demonstrations and rallies held across New Jersey in the six weeks since fighting began.

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Well-armed Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, including the elderly and children, according to survivor accounts. More than 200 Israelis are still being held hostage.

The counterattack by the Israeli military has left 10,000 to 12,000 dead in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, reported the Hamas-run health ministry.

The latest chapter in the conflict has centered on the large Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, which Israeli troops entered last week. Israeli military officials said they found weapons at the facility and showed journalists a shaft on the hospital's grounds that they said led to tunnels used by Hamas. But there has yet to be definitive proof, since troops had not entered the shaft as of Friday, saying it might be booby-trapped.

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Those gathered here on Saturday in white coats, scrubs and EMS uniforms said they denounced the targeting of Palestinian and Israeli civilians. They said the forced evacuation of doctors, patients and others at the hospital by the Israeli military will lead to more deaths and suffering. They held signs saying things like "Babies in Incubators Are Not a Target."

"They are already struggling with low medical supplies, no oxygen, no medication," said Dr. Samir Zaina, a North Jersey primary care physician. "They are working 24 hours to protect kids, patients, critically ill patients."

Al-Shrouf said the American Medical Association has not gone far enough to denounce the violence and call for a cease-fire. A statement by the AMA board of trustees on Nov. 9, before the siege at Al-Shifa hospital, called for "medical neutrality" in the conflict to allow doctors unfettered access to treat their patients and condemned "the military targeting of health care facilities and personnel and using denial of medical services as a weapon of war."

Some doctors at the event Saturday did not want their names made public, fearing online harassment or discipline at work.

One who did speak was Dr. Yasmine Elfarra, a resident, who said she was questioned by executives at her hospital in New York for Instagram posts critical of Israel hours after she learned that 10 members of her family in Gaza had died or had been severely injured in an explosion. She said she had to denounce Hamas and that she would treat an Israeli or Jewish patient as any other.

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"As a Palestinian, I felt like I was a tumor in their hospital system and they were slicing me open to see if I was benign or malignant," Elfarra said.

"I told them I am here and I refuse to see anyone with hate, ever," she said. "None of us do. Fighting for the humanity of my people and their right to live with dignity aligns directly with my ethics as a doctor."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ doctors at Palestinian American center decry Gaza hospital fight