UNITED States Capitol Police have arrested several members of the medical advocacy group Doctors Against Genocide, who had gathered to hold a press conference condemning Israel’s deliberate targeting of Gaza’s health care system.
The arrests occurred inside Senate offices, where the group had also scheduled meetings with lawmakers to demand an end to US support for Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.
Doctors Against Genocide, a collective of healthcare professionals opposing the ongoing war crimes in Palestine, had intended to publicly expose Israel’s systematic obstruction of medical care for Palestinians enduring bombardment, starvation, and siege.
Their protest was met with mass arrests.
‘And they will do it again. And we will, we will keep doing it as long as it takes to get something to change,’ said Phil Brewer, a representative of the group.
‘We’re also meeting with senators, representatives and their staffers, and we’re challenging them.’
With foreign journalists barred from Gaza since the beginning of Israel’s assault, health workers have become key witnesses, documenting the devastation.
Maysa Hawwash, also from Doctors Against Genocide, described the catastrophe: ‘The situation in Gaza is devastating, not only from the deterioration of the healthcare sector in general, but also the mass starvation that is actually happening since March 2nd, and even before that, people were having malnutrition issues.
‘Now over 90% of the population is at crisis level food insecurity. It’s devastating.’
She added: ‘Those doctors serving these hospitals that get bombarded, some of them are actually there while these things are happening. It’s a nonstop attack on health care.’
In the early days of the onslaught, Western media questioned whether Israel would bomb Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa.
Eighteen months later, the World Health Organisation confirms that 94% of Gaza’s hospitals have been destroyed or severely damaged.
There are now no functioning hospitals in northern Gaza.
Phil Brewer added: ‘It’s part of a strategy to destroy Palestinian society.
‘What are the pillars of a society? Education, food, shelter, and medical care. They’ve destroyed every university in Gaza, all 12 of them. And they filmed it.
‘They’ve essentially destroyed every hospital in Gaza.’