”A group of doctors and medical workers who have worked in Gaza have written to the United States (U.S.) President Joe Biden saying the actual death toll from Israel’s months-long assault is far higher than previously reported and demanding that the U.S. withdraw diplomatic and military support to Israel until a ceasefire is reached,” reports the Guardian.
The eight-page letter, delivered two days ago to Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, said medics had seen evidence of widespread violations of laws governing the use of U.S. weapons supplied to Israel, and violations of international humanitarian law.
A total of 45 five surgeons, emergency doctors and medical technicians who volunteered in several hospitals in Gaza in the past months wrote about the “massive human casualties of the Israeli attack on Gaza which took a special toll on women and children”.
“We cannot forget the scenes of unbearable cruelty directed against women and children that we ourselves witnessed,” they wrote, and pointed out:
”Every signatory to this letter has treated children in Gaza who have suffered violence that must have been deliberately directed at them. Namely, every day each of us treated children of pre-teen age who were shot in the head”.
Several signatories previously told the Guardian they believed Israeli snipers were deliberately targeting children and spoke of the devastating impact of weapons designed to disperse large amounts of shrapnel on civilians.
Medics volunteering with the World Health Organization and other aid groups said the actual death toll was much higher than the roughly 39,000 reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
“It is likely that the death toll in this conflict is already in excess of 92,000, a staggering 4.2% of Gaza’s population,” they wrote.
They added that almost no one in Gaza escaped the consequences of the Israeli attack.
”With only rare exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured, or both. This includes every national aid worker, every international volunteer and probably every hostage of Israel: every man, every woman and every child,” they stated.
“We would like you to hear the cries and shouts that our conscience will not allow us to forget”
“President and Dr. Biden, we would like you to see the nightmares that have plagued so many of us since we returned: dreams of maimed children maimed by our weapons, and their inconsolable mothers begging us to save them.”
“We would like you to hear the cries that our conscience will not allow us to forget. We cannot believe that anyone would continue to arm a country that is deliberately killing these children if they saw what we saw,” they added.
