To: Mr Tim Mitchell (RCS England), President, Royal College of Surgeons England
Prof Hany Eteiba (RCS Glasgow), President, Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow
Prof Rowan Parks (RCSEd), President, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Prof Deborah McNamara (RCSI), President, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Subject: Joint Petition from UK and Ireland Surgical Professionals – Urgent Call to Action on the Gaza Crisis

Subject: Joint Petition from Surgical Professionals – Urgent Call to Action on the Gaza Crisis

Dear Mr. Mitchell, Prof. Parks, Prof. Eteiba, and Prof. McNamara,

We, the undersigned surgeons, surgical trainees, perioperative staff, and allied professionals working across the United Kingdom, write to you with deep alarm at the unprecedented deliberate humanitarian catastrophe and forced starvation unfolding in Gaza. As surgical professionals committed to the sanctity of life, medical neutrality, and the ethics of our vocation, we feel a moral and professional responsibility to speak out with urgency and clarity.

As of May 2025, reports from the World Health Organization and United Nations confirm the near-total collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system. Over 90% of hospitals have been damaged or destroyed, and over 1,500 attacks on Palestinian healthcare have been recorded since October 2023, including nearly 1,000 deaths. At least 71,000 children under five are projected to suffer acute malnutrition, with dozens already dead from starvation since March. Gaza’s emergency, surgical, and intensive care services are in ruins. Its only burns unit has been obliterated. Nasser Medical Complex, a major surgical referral centre, lost 18 critical care beds in an airstrike.

Across Gaza, surgeons are performing operations, amputations, and caesarean sections without anaesthesia, sterile instruments, electricity, or oxygen. Triage systems have collapsed. Blood products are depleted. The surgical workforce is exhausted, operating under siege conditions, while ambulances are targeted and medical staff are killed.

These are not isolated failures, they are the result of systematic attacks on healthcare infrastructure and a prolonged blockade that obstructs humanitarian aid. They represent grave violations of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions. They are also a direct assault on the ethical foundations of our profession: to preserve life, to relieve suffering, and to provide care impartially and without fear.

We recognise the contributions of the Royal Colleges to global surgical education and humanitarian engagement. However, the scale and severity of this crisis demand more than solidarity. They require principled, public, and coordinated leadership.

We also acknowledge that statements may have been issued or are under consideration. Yet, in the face of mass civilian suffering and the destruction of entire surgical care systems, statements alone are not enough. Silence, or neutral language, risks being interpreted as complicity.

We therefore respectfully call on your leadership to:

1. Publicly and unequivocally condemn the mass indiscriminate killing of civilians, use of starvation, blockade of humanitarian aid, and the deliberate targeting of surgical and healthcare infrastructure and personnel in Gaza.

2. Endorse and align with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2728 (March 2024), which calls for an immediate ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian access, and protection of healthcare workers and facilities.

3. Collaborate across the surgical colleges and with international organisations to advocate for the restoration of emergency, surgical, and critical care services in Gaza and the protection of healthcare in conflict zones.

4. Support international legal accountability for those responsible for the targeting of hospitals, surgical units, ambulances, and healthcare workers, and for the obstruction of care.

5. Mobilise the surgical community of healthcare workers by providing a platform for RCS members and fellows to educate, advocate, and act on behalf of surgical colleagues in Gaza and other conflict-affected regions, including clear ethical guidance on medical neutrality and advocacy in humanitarian crises.

6. Commit to contributing to the long-term Palestinian-led rebuilding of Gaza’s healthcare system, including surgical services, medical education, and workforce training, in collaboration with local and international partners.

7. Promote and protect safe, inclusive professional environments where members can express humanitarian concerns and engage in advocacy without fear of reprisal or censorship.

This is a defining moment for our profession, a test of our ethics, our courage, and our commitment to the values we uphold in every operating theatre. History will remember how the surgical community responded.

We stand ready to support the Colleges in taking principled, visible action to defend the right to care, dignity, and life for all.

Sincerely,

[The Undersigned]

UK & Ireland Surgical Community

June 2025

United Nations (2024) Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, UN General Assembly, A/79/232, 11 September. New York: United Nations. Available at: https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n24/262/79/pdf/n2426279.pdf

Genocide in Gaza: moral and ethical failures of medical institutions. (2025) The Lancet, PIIS0140‑6736(25)01173‑0. Available from: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01173-0/fulltext

The Lancet. Catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza: health workers call for urgent action. Lancet. 2025 Jun 1;405(10399):1997. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01173-0.

World Health Organization (WHO), 2024. Occupied Palestinian Territory: Public Health Situation Analysis – May 2024. [pdf] United Nations. Available at: https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/WHO-PHSA-oPt-020524-FINAL.pdf