Over 80 people attended a healthcare vigil outside Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry on Friday evening to support their colleagues in Gaza.
Doctors, nurses and representative of various unions and community groups gathered outside Daisy Hill at the Unison organised vigil to show solidarity with healthcare workers in Gaza.
Nurse and Unison representative at Daisy Hill, Deirdre Murphy, called for healthcare workers throughout Ireland and the UK to work tirelessly to campaign to end the genocide in Gaza, urging them to write to their health care trusts to demand action.
“If we are united in our actions, if we are prepared to focus all our energy protesting, marching, writing to our councillors, MPs, TDs, health trusts and all those with influence who fail to use it to prevent this slaughter, we can move mountains,” she said.
She quoted a recent report from the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, saying that ‘Israel has implemented a concerted policy to destroy the healthcare system of Gaza.’
She also quoted the report’s findings that ‘Israeli security forces have deliberately killed, wounded, arrested, detained, mistreated and tortured medical personnel and targeted medical vehicles, constituting the war crimes of wilful killing and mistreatment and the crime against humanity of extermination.’
“Unbelievably,” she said, “the situation is getting even worse. The extermination of those sheltering in what is left of northern Gaza has seen Israel’s war crimes reach even greater proportions. And with the starvation and killing of civilians – now an average of 70 children murdered each day, according to the UN – the destruction of the Gaza health service becomes even more intense.”
Unison representative for Newry and Mourne, Siju George, a member of the large international workers community in Newry, said: “We cannot even imagine the pain of our colleagues in Gaza, many already grieving for the loss of their children, siblings and parents and fearing daily for their own lives. We cannot imagine their exhaustion amidst this endless daily battle to uphold their vows as health care professionals to treat the sick and injured, when they are left without the equipment or supplies to do so.
“We cannot imagine their despair at seeing babies die because they do not have the most basic medicines for their survival. We cannot imagine the horror of seeing a child with third degree burns screaming in agony and not be able to offer pain relief because they have none.”
Other healthcare workers read poems, including James Baldwin’s ‘Every bombed village is my hometown’ and ‘If I must die’ by Refaat Alareer.
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