RCPCH Trainees and Members Letter to College - Child Health in Palestine, 23rd July 2025

RCPCH Trainees and Members Letter to College - Child Health in Palestine, 23rd July 2025

Dear Professor Steve Turner,

We write to you as a body of UK paediatric trainees and members to express our concern for the ongoing killing and maiming of children and young people (CYP) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the inadequacy of the RCPCH response to safeguard child health. This is in view of the college’s stated mission to advocate for the health and rights of children globally and its leading role in the UK’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), including Article 38: protection during armed conflict.

Palestine is the deadliest place on Earth to be a child. Since the escalation of violence in October 2023, more than 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured. The ecosystems of care that enable CYP to thrive have been systematically dismantled. The WHO finds that Gaza’s population of 2.1 million Palestinians is facing ‘man-made mass starvation’, as ‘forced starvation’ is maintained through a humanitarian aid blockade. All the while, 1400 health workers have been killed by Israeli state forces and military attacks have forced a third of all hospitals in Gaza to completely shutdown. In May, our paediatric colleague Dr Alaa Najjar ran home from her shift at the paediatric unit to find 9 of her 10 children killed in an IDF missile strike, and Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, paediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital remains in unlawful and inhumane detention.

The situation in Palestine continues to devastate paediatric trainees and members on a daily basis and inconsequential and belated actions taken by the college have only served to compound our collective moral distress.

At the college AGM on 27th March, RCPCH members used a motion to have their say regarding the college’s interventions for child health in Gaza. The motion called for the condemnation of actors in violation of international humanitarian agreements as well as unrestricted access to Gaza to support aid and rebuilding. It also demanded that the UK Government ensure all parties involved respect international law. RCPCH is a member organisation and the motion passed with 81% voting in favour. Out of the 808 members that voted, 640 voted in favour, 146 against and 22 abstained. The college board of trustees' response on April 7th, failed to name any actors responsible for the ongoing violations of children’s rights and did not call upon any institution or the UK government to take any specific actions. For trainees and members, this position appears democratically unjust and inconsistent with RCPCH’s Ukraine position statement which highlights actions taken in ‘defiance of Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law.’ Medical professionals, public health and human rights scholars and countless humanitarian organisations have highlighted the role of the Israeli Government in its killing and maiming of CYP. As the UK’s leading child health institution, it is devastating RCPCH has not done the same. As Niu, Helena et al. writing in the Lancet have noted, ‘The silence of so many of our medical institutions in the face of this genocide reflects a profound failure to uphold the ethical principles these institutions claim to espouse and seek to instil in their members.’ 

Evading a meaningful response to the worsening situation in Palestine has left trainees and members feeling disappointed, despondent and invisible by their training body and professional institution.

As trainees and members, we call on RCPCH to:

1. Adhere to its own commitment to democratic due process and reaffirm the AGM motion to publicly condemn the Israeli-government in the ongoing violation of international humanitarian agreements towards children and young people (CYP).
    
2. Demand the UK Government uphold legal accountability and protections, ending its facilitation of F-35 fighter jet components and halting all direct and indirect British arms exports to Israel including training and intelligence gathering to ensure weaponry cannot be used to injure, maim and kill CYP and their ecosystems of care.
    
3. Work with trainees and members to establish a pastoral support system for those impacted by the ongoing events in OPT, and mechanisms to undertake collective child rights advocacy, including a national conference, following the precedent set by the College’s response to Ukraine.