To: Professor Nicola Ranger, General Secretary and Chief Executive, Royal College of Nursing

Dear Professor Ranger,

We, the undersigned nurses, allied health professionals, and healthcare colleagues, write to you with urgent concerns for the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. As defined in the RCN’s Humanitarian Crises Framework (2025), this is a clear case of a human-made disaster involving systemic harm to civilians, widespread destruction of health infrastructure, and obstruction of care. It constitutes a direct challenge to medical neutrality, to the right to health, and to the fundamental ethical commitments of the nursing profession.

Gaza as a Defined Man-made Humanitarian Crisis

According to the WHO and UN, thousands of children are at imminent risk of death due to starvation. This is occurring alongside the targeted destruction of healthcare facilities, the killing of healthcare personnel, and obstruction of humanitarian aid — all in violation of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law. You will of course also be aware that the majority of healthcare staff that have been killed are nurses.

These are not abstract violations. Most recently, Nurse Ayman Soliman Abu-Tair, the head of clinical nutrition and a respected nursing colleague, was killed. His entire family, including his mother, wife, and children, had been killed four months earlier. This devastating loss is emblematic of the severe risks and tragedies faced by healthcare workers and their families in this conflict.

At the BMA Annual Representative Meeting on 24 June 2025, three motions were passed with overwhelming support (between 85% and 91% of delegates voting in favour): (1) Criticism of Israel is not antisemitism; (2) Healthcare workers have the right to advocate for colleagues in Palestine without fear of punitive action; and (3) Unequivocal condemnation of Israel’s attacks on the healthcare system. A further emergency motion condemned the World Medical Association (WMA) and Israeli Medical Association (IMA) for addressing attacks in Israel while remaining silent on the mass targeting of Gaza’s health system, highlighting well-documented destruction and deaths of Palestinian healthcare workers. It calls on the BMA to reaffirm impartial healthcare protection, urge the WMA to condemn all attacks on healthcare including in Gaza, and suspend engagement with the IMA until it upholds neutrality. These motions reflect the growing consensus across the health professions that silence is not neutrality. They also underline that engagement with organisations whose actions do not live up to what over 800 UK legal experts and former Supreme Court judges have described as at least a serious risk of genocide is unacceptable. Defending the rights of healthcare workers and civilians is an ethical obligation. In this spirit, we urge the RCN to take similarly principled action consistent with its own humanitarian framework and tradition of global health solidarity.

This crisis directly meets the RCN’s response thresholds under Section 6.4 of the Framework — particularly:

• 6.4.1 & 6.4.6: where nurses and health workers have been targeted and denied the ability to deliver care, and where medical neutrality has been violated;
• 6.4.5: where access to non-discriminatory healthcare has collapsed;
• 6.4.7: where states have failed to uphold obligations under international agreements;
• and 6.4.8: where RCN members face situations that compromise their ability to uphold the NMC Code to respect and uphold human dignity and human rights.

In Light of the RCN’s Humanitarian Principles

As the voice of nursing in the UK and a leader in global health solidarity, the RCN is guided by the four humanitarian principles: humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence. The Framework states that human suffering must be addressed wherever it is found, especially among the most vulnerable — with children being the most affected in this crisis. Our call is grounded not in partisanship but in ethical obligation, international law, and the nursing profession’s historic role in standing against the deliberate targeting of health and life.

Our Call to Action

We acknowledge and value the RCN’s existing mechanisms for humanitarian response. Consistent with Section 7 of the Framework, we respectfully call on the RCN to adopt the following actions:

1. (Align with 7.2) Publicly and unequivocally condemn the military targeting of healthcare workers, including systematic destruction of healthcare infrastructure, the use of starvation, and the blockade of humanitarian aid in Gaza as violations of international law and children’s rights.

2. (Align with 7.2 and 6.1) Publicly support and align with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2728 (March 2024), which demands an immediate and lasting ceasefire, full humanitarian access, and protection of civilians and healthcare.

3. (Align with 7.5 & 7.7) Mobilise the UK nursing community in collective professional advocacy through open letters, coordinated campaigns, and policy engagement with government and international bodies.

4. (Align with 7.3 & 7.5) Immediately collaborate with Palestinian organisations and nursing/diaspora organisations in the region to protect health workers and advocate for humanitarian access. Separate this demand from reconstruction efforts, ensuring any future rebuilding initiatives take a decolonised approach and are not delayed until after the acute phase.

5. (Align with 6.4.1 and 7.10) Support calls for legal accountability for the obstruction of healthcare, attacks on civilians and healthcare professionals, and violations of medical neutrality under the Geneva Conventions.

6. (Align with 7.6 and 7.12) Host a dedicated national RCN forum or conference in collaboration with respected diaspora organisations in the UK on protecting healthcare workers, immediate humanitarian needs, and the survival of children in Gaza, rather than waiting until after the acute phase.

In Closing

The RCN’s Framework recognises the role of the profession in raising the alarm and providing principled leadership when health, safety, and dignity are under systematic attack. This is such a moment.

We urge the RCN to lead with the courage, clarity, and compassion that nurses across the UK and globally expect from the world's largest professional nursing union and we stand ready to support and participate in any initiative that furthers these aims.

Sincerely,

 The Undersigned

 UK Nurses Community

 June 2025