Anti-War Israelis Fear Speaking Up For Gaza. Over 100 Medical Workers Are Doing It Anyway.

In a letter first obtained by HuffPost, the medical workers seek to make known that there are Israelis who oppose the military killing Palestinians in their name.

More than 100 Israeli medical workers are voicing their opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing military offensive in Gaza, rebelling against what they describe is a widespread culture of silence and fear of punishment among Israelis who want the government to stop killing Palestinians in their name.

In a letter addressed to the White House and first obtained Tuesday by HuffPost, 117 medical workers in Israel expressed support for their colleagues in the United States who earlier this month demanded the Biden administration stop funding and arming the ongoing military offensive in Gaza. The American workers had all provided medical aid to Palestinians in Gaza at some point over the past year.

“Unfortunately, as Israeli civilians, we cannot offer any medical assistance or support to the thousands of Gaza patients in need, not even to many chronically ill patients who had been treated in Israeli hospitals before October 7th,” read the Tuesday letter signed by physicians, nurses, therapists and surgeons.

The massive destruction of Gaza began after Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage in an attack on southern Israel last year. Many of the Israeli medical personnel testified that they have treated casualties related to the current turmoil, including returned hostages.

Since then, the Israeli military has rained bombs and gunfire on the Palestinian territory ― eviscerating the infrastructure, killing more than 42,000 people and creating a humanitarian catastrophe. But while civilians in much of the West openly protest Israel’s rapidly spreading military campaign, those in Israel who share the same position fear the government’s very real consequences for doing the same.