30 August 2025 – Brussels 
 
We, doctors and health workers—together with representatives of healthcare unions, medical associations, and institutions from around the world—address this declaration to the international community. 

We act out of an ethical and professional duty to respond to systematic attacks on Gaza’s health system—assaults that endanger life and violate international humanitarian law. 

What follows sets out, in order: the principles that guide us; the laws being violated; the reality on the ground; the actions now required; and a global appeal to protect healthcare in conflict. 

I. Fundamental Principles 

• Attacks on hospitals, health facilities, medical staff, and the obstruction of medicines and supplies are flagrant breaches of medical ethics and humanitarian law.
• Gaza represents a stark denial of the right to health during armed conflict, requiring urgent international action to safeguard humanitarian and legal standards.
• Protection of medical personnel, ambulance services, mobile surgical units, and teaching hospitals is a binding obligation under international humanitarian law.
• Unhindered access to essential medicines and equipment—including oxygen, ventilators, and surgical supplies—is indispensable for saving lives.

II. The Violated International Legal Framework 

• Fourth Geneva Convention (1949, Art. 18): protection for hospitals and medical staff. 
• Additional Protocol I (1977): prohibition of attacks on medical units; affirmation of health-worker immunity. 
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and ICESCR (1966): the right to health without discrimination. 
• Convention on the Prevention of Genocide (1948) and Rome Statute of the ICC (1998): targeting civilians and medical facilities constitutes war crimes. 
• International Court of Justice orders (2024–2025): require unimpeded humanitarian aid access to Gaza. 
• Ongoing violations incur individual criminal responsibility for those who target medical facilities or obstruct access to healthcare. 
   

III. Current Humanitarian and Health Situation 

• The destruction of hospitals, the arbitrary detention of medical personnel, and critical medicine shortages have created a deepening health catastrophe. 
• Children, older people, and persons with disabilities are disproportionately affected. 
• Disrupted medical supply chains endanger urgent, surgical, maternal, chronic, and long-term care. 
• Health workers operate under extreme conditions—exhausted, traumatised, and at constant risk. 

This Brussels Declaration calls for: 

1. Immediately halt all attacks on hospitals, health facilities, and medical personnel. 
2. Release all detained health workers.
3. Remove all barriers to the entry and delivery of essential medicines, equipment, and supplies. 
4. Provide independent and adequate protection for medical staff, including ambulance services, mobile surgical units, and teaching hospitals. 
5. Deliver urgent international assistance for the reconstruction of destroyed health facilities. 
6. Establish an independent international investigation to ensure accountability for grave violations. 
7. Preserve and strengthen essential health and mental-health services for all residents, prioritising vulnerable groups. 
8. Maintain continuous international monitoring of medical supply chains to guarantee timely delivery of vital medicines and equipment. 

We, the undersigned, affirm: 
that the assault on Gaza’s health system is a grave humanitarian concern that strikes at the core of the right to life and human dignity, we affirm our united humanitarian stance, reject the targeting of healthcare in any armed conflict, and declare that the protection of hospitals, doctors, and patients is a universal duty. Any assault upon them is an assault on humanity itself.