A group of doctors who recently returned from the Gaza Strip has called on U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration to impose an immediate arms ban on Israel.
During a press conference held on Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the American doctors highlighted the devastating impact of Israeli attacks on Gaza.
They warned that if the U.S. does not impose an immediate arms ban on Israel, it will “continue to be complicit in the crime.”
Dr. Tami Abu Ghanem, one of the doctors who came from Gaza, stated that the ongoing Israeli attacks for more than 10 months have made life in Gaza “literally impossible for any civilian.”
He added, “We cannot do our work while bombs are falling, Israeli snipers are targeting children and civilians, and Israeli helicopters are landing on groups of civilians. Israel has made our mission impossible with direct support from the United States.”
Abu Ghanem’s colleagues attended the press conference wearing keffiyehs, emphasizing that the “horrifying dimensions” of what happened in Gaza cannot be fully conveyed.
Dr. Firoz Siddiqui, in response to questions from journalists, said she stayed in Gaza from March 25th to April 8th and witnessed “genocidal violence” firsthand. She added, “I saw children’s heads blown off, not once or twice, but literally every day, by bullets that we paid for. I saw the systematic and terrible destruction of the entire city of Khan Yunis.”
During the press conference, a message from Dr. Mark Perlmutter, a Jewish-American doctor working in Gaza, was read. It stated: “I have never seen a young child shot in the head and then in the chest before. I never imagined I would see two such cases in less than two weeks.
I have never seen dozens of young children screaming in pain and terror… I never imagined what a hospital would look like when it turns into a refugee camp.”
Perlmutter’s message also pointed out that “the U.S. government continued to fund this horrific massacre, not for a week or a month, but for almost a year.”
He concluded by saying, “For the sake of the Palestinians, the United States, Israel, Judaism, international law, and humanity as a whole, I urge you to stop arming Israel.”
