RCN urges UK Government to help protect children and health workers in Gaza

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and other leading health organisations have written to the foreign secretary to demand action to protect children and healthcare workers in Gaza.

The RCN, alongside the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and others, have written to David Lammy to request an ‘urgent meeting’ to address the ongoing crisis in the region.

In their letter to Mr Lammy the colleges say they are ‘profoundly alarmed’ by the ‘ongoing humanitarian catastrophe’ in Gaza and call on the UK Government to ‘take all possible steps’ to bring an end to the conflict.

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‘We would be grateful for an opportunity to discuss how the UK Government can help protect children and healthcare workers in Gaza, both today and in future,’ they wrote.

‘The UK Government has a responsibility to take all possible steps to help bring an end to this devastating conflict. Today, that call is more urgent than ever.

‘The severe restrictions on humanitarian aid and effects of violence on Gazan children are catastrophic – denying them access to the basic means of survival, including food, clean water, shelter, and medical care-alongside causing injury, psychological trauma and death.’

They added: ‘We must all uphold the international commitments we have made to protect and promote the rights of children.’

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‘These rights are not optional – they are fundamental. Every child has the right to survive and thrive, even in the most challenging of circumstances.’

The signatories, which include the RCN general secretary and chief executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, are pushing the government to provide ‘continued leadership’ to ensure the international community upholds international humanitarian and human rights law.

The letter asks the UK Government to seek the following steps:

• Lifting the near total blockade of food, goods and aid entering Gaza
• An immediate and permanent ceasefire and return of hostages
• The safe, effective and unrestricted delivery of politically and militarily independent humanitarian assistance that matches the scale of the crisis
• Sick children to be allowed to leave Gaza to access treatment in countries who are willing to provide this including within the UK NHS
• An end to hospitals and healthcare workers being targeted by military attacks in direct contravention of international humanitarian law.

A spokesperson for Nurses for Palestine said the campaign group ‘welcome’ the RCN’s efforts to engage with the government but warned that the action ‘does not go far enough’ in recognising the UK’s role in the conflict.

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They said they would continue to ‘demand more of the RCN’, as set out in their correspondence to the college late last year.

The government has been contacted for comment.