‘We will never forget you’: UK health workers vow to be voice of Gaza colleagues facing Israeli horrors

By Burak Bir and Zuhal Demirci

LONDON (AA) - British health care workers, in solidarity with their colleagues in the Gaza Strip, are urging the health care community across the globe to join them in calling for a humanitarian, permanent and immediate cease-fire in the enclave.

In an interview with Anadolu, Rachel Moses, a physiotherapist, said that 39 physiotherapists have been killed so far in Gaza alone out of hundreds of health care workers who have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7 last year.

"I knew many of them personally," she said, noting that she has been to the besieged enclave many times to help support the rehabilitation and physiotherapy services.

One of them was Ouda, a musculoskeletal physiotherapist who was killed in January.

"He was a devoted husband. He had two sons and he was larger than life," she noted, adding that Ouda was also a clinical academic.

"It is such a tragic loss to our profession and to the people of Gaza," she said.

Moses said the situation in Gaza was substandard for anyone even before the "devastating effects of Oct. 7."

"Now, the health care system is completely devastated. There are only a handful of hospitals that are operational and with so many health care workers and aid workers killed and injured and displaced," she said.

Regarding her stance on the situation in Gaza, she said: "We are on the side of humanity. We are here being your voice. We will not be silent. We will not be stopped."

She vowed to continue to advocate for Gazans’ human rights "for as long as we can."

"We as health care workers need to unite across the world...I call on the health care community across the globe to join us in calling for a humanitarian, permanent, immediate cease-fire to prevent any more needless deaths," she said.

"Everyone has a voice, and we should use it for the sake of humanity."

- 'Have strength Gaza, because you will come back'

Jordan Rivera, an occupational therapist, said the current state of the health care system in Gaza is appalling and it is "really disgraceful" seeing the way that it has been decimated.

"I would call for a cease-fire. I would like our government to call for a cease-fire immediately, and I'd like them to stop selling weapons to Israel because it's really awful to know that we're part of what's happening as British people," she noted.

Hailing the efforts of her colleagues in Gaza, Rivera said that as British health workers, they are thinking of their friends there.

"We are speaking for you, and we're fighting for you," she said, adding that every time they stage a vigil or a protest, it's because they want to get a cease-fire in Gaza and "to make things better."

Rivera said she read an article about an occupational therapist in Gaza and thought it would be "really fantastic" to go there in that capacity.

She called on the government to take action leading to an end to the killing of civilians, underlining that people in power need to say "Israel has to stop."

"I feel like when we look back in the future, people will be really ashamed that they didn't speak up," added Rivera, who is also a member of the British trade union UNISON.

"I would like to say ‘Have strength Gaza’ because you will come back. It's a terrible, terrible situation, but we won't let this just stop the way it is. We will help you to come back. We support you.”

- 'UK government continues to aid genocide'

Taby Khan, a clinical research scientist with Britain’s National Health Service, said that over 600 health care workers have been murdered, "targeted specifically for the destruction of the health care system" in Gaza.

"We saw 36 hospitals flattened to the ground. The health care system has completely collapsed. This is a strategy in the Israeli attempt at genocide, amongst other strategies such as ecocide, educide, manmade famine, blockades and siege," she noted.

Khan underlined that as health care workers, they "cannot sit idly by and watch our colleagues be slaughtered and massacred."

Recalling the destruction of hospitals, including the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, she pointed out that doctors, nurses, scientists and physiotherapists were executed.

"We saw the executions of doctors, clinicians, nurses, scientists, physios. We saw them all being rounded up and put in pickup trucks, blindfolded and zip-tied like cattle being led to the slaughter."

Saying they are being traumatized in the UK watching it, Khan criticized the British government for funding "these war crimes" in their name.

"The UK government continues to aid a genocide that is taking place in Palestine," she said, highlighting that they want the government to stop arming Israel.

"We want a permanent cease-fire. We want an end to the occupation, and we will not stop until our demands are met."

Noting that 2024 is an election year in the UK, she said: "Our voices will be heard."

"You are inspirational. You are the true heroes. We see you. The world sees you. We see your self-sacrifice. You are sacrificing your life just so that you can treat your patients, and you are an example to us all," she said, referring to Palestinian health care workers.