US medics in Gaza urge Biden to end support for Israel

Dozens of American doctors and nurses volunteering in Gaza have penned a letter to President Joe Biden urging an end to military support to Israel and calling for a ceasefire in the besieged enclave. 

In the eight-page letter addressed to Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the medics said they had witnessed widespread violations of laws over the use of US-supplied weapons and breaches of international humanitarian law.

Forty-five surgeons, emergency room physicians and nurses who volunteered with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other relief groups in several Gaza hospitals have described the "massive human toll from Israel’s attack on Gaza, especially the toll it has taken on women and children".

"We cannot forget the scenes of unbearable cruelty directed at women and children that we witnessed ourselves," the letter said.

"Every single signatory to this letter treated children in Gaza who suffered violence that must have been deliberately directed at them. Specifically, every one of us on a daily basis treated pre-teen children who were shot in the head."

The letter came just days after two American doctors in Gaza told CBS News in a recent interview that they had seen and treated multiple children with gunshot wounds to the head and heart.

In their letter, the medics urged the US leaders to call for "an immediate and permanent ceasefire".

"We urge you to withhold military, economic and diplomatic support from the state of Israel and to participate in an international arms embargo of both Israel and all Palestinian armed groups until a permanent ceasefire is established and until good faith negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians lead to a permanent resolution of the conflict," they wrote.

The medics said they believe that the real death toll, which is currently estimated to be at least 39,175 people, is much higher.

"It is likely that the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 92,000, an astonishing 4.2% of Gaza’s population," they said, adding that almost everyone in Gaza has been affected by the dire consequences of Israel's onslaught.

"With only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured or both. This includes every national aid worker, every international volunteer and probably every Israeli hostage: every man, woman and child," the letter said, warning that "epidemics are raging in Gaza".

The medics also described Israel's repeated displacement of a malnourished and sick civilian population to areas without running water and toilets as "absolutely shocking".

The WHO said on Friday it was sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99 percent worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine only to its soldiers who were taking part in its offensive in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.

A recent study published in The Lancet journel had highlighted that the true death toll from Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza may be significantly higher than previously reported.

The study estimated that the total number of deaths could exceed 186,000, which is approximately 8 percent of Gaza's population.

This figure includes both direct casualties from the violence and indirect deaths resulting from the destruction of healthcare infrastructure, shortages of food and water, and the overall collapse of public services.

The study also pointed out that the number of bodies buried under rubble could be substantial, with estimates suggesting that more than 10,000 people might remain undiscovered​.