Top Israeli doctors urge court to allow life-saving evacuations of Gaza patients
A Gazan patient and his family return to their home after being told their passage had been postponed, early February 2026
Ido Efrati reports in Haaretz on 16 February 2026:
Thirty-two top doctors in Israel are asking to join an appeal to the Supreme Court demanding that patients from the Gaza Strip be evacuated to the West Bank and East Jerusalem for immediate medical treatment.
The request was signed by past and present hospital directors, a former Health Ministry director general, the presidents of the Israeli National Academy of Science in Medicine, hospital department chiefs, the heads of professional associations and the directors of public health schools.
In the letter, which was presented by attorney Adi Lustigman, the doctors said that the issue “touches on the heart of the medical professional and medical ethics.” They said that “by virtue of the Hippocratic oath, which requires providing medical care to every person in need, regardless of religion, nationality, origin or political affiliation,” they felt obliged to join the appeal.
The doctors wrote that their request to join the appeal was also based on the Oath of the Hebrew Physician, which states “You will fulfill your duty day and night to stand by the sick in their distress at any time and at any hour …. You will aid the sick irrespective of whether they are converts or gentiles or citizens, whether they are ignominious or respected.”
The signatories have years of experience treating patients from Gaza, even in combat. In their request, they emphasized that there were mechanisms for screening, control and security for those needing medical treatment that would enable them to receive life-saving treatment while minimizing risks. They asserted that evacuating them to hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was feasible and need not depend on a third country to provide services, as has been the case.
The signatories include Prof. Nachman Ash, a former Health Ministry director general; Prof. Rivka Carmi, former president of Ben-Gurion University and a president of the Israeli National Academy of Science in Medicine; Prof. Jacob Sosna, also a president of the Israeli National Academy of Science in Medicine and head of imaging at Hadassah Medical Center; Prof. Dan Turner, vice president of research and and innovation at Shaare Zedek Medical Center; Prof. Raanan Shamir, former president of the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition; Prof. Shifra Ash, former president of the Israeli Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology; Prof. Ido Wolf, director of the Oncology Division of Ichilov Hospital; Prof. Gidi Paret, former head of pediatric intensive care at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer; and Prof. Yasmin Maor, chairwoman of the Israeli Society for Infectious Diseases.
“The petition is a call to return medical, ethical and humanitarian considerations to the center of decision-making,” said Prof. Nadav Davidovich, another signatory, who chairs the Public Health Forum of the Israel Medical Association and serves on the Faculty of Medicine at Bar- Ilan University.
“Experience shows that mechanisms for evacuating patients to the West Bank and East Jerusalem are an effective solution, allowing for the delivery of necessary humanitarian assistance while maintaining security needs. As those involved in public health and health policy, we see blocking access to medical care as a moral and professional failure that can be resolved, and therefore, the importance of an independent medical voice in court,” he emphasized.
Davidovich added that “as doctors and as members of the health care system, our first and foremost commitment is to human life and health. The request to join the appeal stems from the deep understanding that the doctor’s oath does not stop at political boundaries. When sick and injured people cannot receive treatment that is life-saving or prevents suffering, our professional and moral duty is to work for a feasible and just medical solution.”
The appeal, which was submitted by Physicians for Human Rights, Gisha, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights, HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, asks the court to order the mechanism for evacuating patients from Gaza to hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to be restored. The hearing on the petition, which calls for immediate access to medical treatment, is scheduled for July.
The appeal says that the lives of some 16,500 Gazans, most of them children, the elderly and women, are in danger because they cannot get access to needed medical treatment in the enclave. They noted that since the outbreak of the Gaza war, the local health care system has collapsed and that the State of Israel, which controls passage in and out of the enclave, has exclusive power over medical evacuations.
It states that two-thirds of the Strip’s 647 health facilities operating in October 2023 are no longer functioning and that only three hospitals are fully operational. The number of beds has dropped from 3,500 to just 1,952, for a population of 2.1 million people.
Essential services such as chemotherapy, advanced imaging, intensive care, oncological surgeries and pediatric care are almost totally unavailable. It is estimated that more than 11,000 cancer patients have been left without essential medicines and equipment, and that 75 percent of chemotherapy drugs are not available at all in Gaza.
The petition noted the deplorable living conditions of hundreds of thousands of Gazans in tents in refugee camps, numerous injuries, infectious diseases and chronic illnesses that are not being treated, a reality in which every day of delay in evacuating patients directly endangers their lives.
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