Calls to Sign the “Brussels Declaration” to Protect Gaza’s Health System
On August 30, 2025, The Palestinian Doctors Association in Europe (PalMed Europe), medical associations, together with representatives of healthcare unions and medical associations from around the world, issued a joint declaration from Brussels. The statement delivers an urgent appeal to the international community to stop attacks on Gaza’s health system.
The signatories stressed that their action stems from an ethical and professional duty to respond to systematic assaults targeting hospitals, medical staff, and vital supplies—attacks that pose a direct threat to life and constitute a grave violation of international humanitarian law.
Core Principles
- Attacks on hospitals, medical facilities, healthcare workers, and the obstruction of medicine and supply deliveries represent blatant breaches of medical ethics and humanitarian law.
- The situation in Gaza amounts to a stark denial of the right to health during armed conflict, demanding immediate international intervention to uphold humanitarian and legal standards.
- International law obligates the protection of healthcare workers, ambulance services, mobile surgical units, and teaching hospitals.
- Unrestricted access to essential medicines and medical equipment—such as oxygen, ventilators, and surgical supplies—is indispensable for saving lives.
Violated International Legal Framework
- Fourth Geneva Convention (1949): Protects hospitals and medical staff.
- Additional Protocol I (1977): Prohibits attacks on medical units and affirms the immunity of healthcare workers.
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and ICESCR (1966): Guarantee the right to health without discrimination.
- Convention on the Prevention of Genocide (1948) and the Rome Statute of the ICC (1998): Consider targeting civilians and medical facilities as war crimes.
- International Court of Justice orders (2024–2025): Call for unimpeded humanitarian aid access to Gaza.
The declaration emphasizes that ongoing violations incur individual criminal responsibility for those who target medical facilities or obstruct access to healthcare.
The Humanitarian and Health Situation in Gaza
- The destruction of hospitals, arbitrary detention of healthcare workers, and shortages of essential medicines have triggered a deepening health catastrophe.
- Children, the elderly, and people with disabilities are among the most affected.
- Disrupted medical supply chains jeopardize urgent, surgical, maternal, chronic, and long-term care.
- Health workers are forced to operate under dire conditions—exhausted, traumatized, and at constant risk.
Urgent Demands of the “Brussels Declaration”
The declaration calls for a series of urgent measures, including:
- An immediate halt to all attacks on hospitals, healthcare facilities, and medical personnel.
- The release of all detained healthcare workers.
- The removal of barriers to the entry and distribution of essential medicines, equipment, and supplies.
- Independent and adequate protection for medical staff, including ambulance services, mobile surgical units, and teaching hospitals.
- Urgent international assistance to rebuild destroyed health facilities.
- The establishment of an independent international investigation to ensure accountability for grave violations.
- The preservation and strengthening of essential health and mental health services for all residents, prioritizing vulnerable groups.
- Continuous international monitoring of medical supply chains to guarantee timely delivery of vital medicines and equipment.
Position of the Signatories
The doctors and healthcare workers who signed the declaration affirmed that the assault on Gaza’s health system is a grave humanitarian crisis that strikes at the core of the right to life and human dignity.
They stressed their united humanitarian stance, rejecting the targeting of healthcare in any armed conflict, and declared that protecting hospitals, doctors, and patients is a universal duty. Any assault on them is an assault on humanity itself.
The signatories also urged healthcare professionals worldwide to join swiftly in signing the declaration in order to amplify international pressure to protect Gaza’s health system.
Click here to sign the Brussels Declaration
Alarab in uk platform (AUK) considers the “Brussels Declaration” a vital testimony to the scale of the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Gaza’s health sector. The platform affirms that the targeting of hospitals and doctors is a flagrant violation of universal values and international norms, exposing the grave consequences of absent accountability.
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