During yesterday alone, more than a hundred Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, bringing the number of fatalities since the beginning of the assault on Gaza to over 506, while over 3,604 people have been injured in what is nothing less than a massacre of civilian populations who have nowhere to run in the open air prison created for them by their attacker. The situation is extremely grave and dangerous. Journalists and medical personnel have been targeted too. Just yesterday, 2 ambulances were hit and destroyed, killing at least one driver and a journalist who was riding along. A first aider was killed by Israeli bombs while he was performing his duties in the neighborhood of Shajaeya. Further, since the attacks began, 5 hospitals have been hit, including a medical facility for disabled people where two disabled women lost their lives as a result of the bombing. As health organizations, we are receiving constant calls from the Shifa hospital and other health infrastructures demanding protection. Water and electricity cuts have affected hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands have been displaced in what looks uncannily like an act of ethnic cleansing.

These attacks against protected people and emblems are absolutely inadmissible and unconscionable. We urge the Red Cross to hold true to its responsibility as depository of the Geneva Conventions and intervene immediately to stop the massacre. We demand a strong and visible Red Cross presence in all medical facilities and ambulances in Gaza. We also demand that the UN take the necessary steps to place civilians in Gaza under the protection of the international community.

The killing of civilians must be stopped at once. Protected people must be protected by the international community who bears the duty under international law. We, the Palestinian medical and health organizations signing this appeal, demand immediate intervention to save the people of Gaza. Anyone who remains silent in the face of this massacre is complicit.