Watch: Cork vigil hears names of hundreds of health workers killed in Gaza

List of 400-plus medics who died took 30 minutes to read — and it does not include those missing or being held by Israeli forces

At the vigil at Cork University Hospital, medical student Yazan Mustafa was one of those who read the the roll call of over 400 medics and healthcare workers who have been killed in Gaza. Picture: David Creedon

Fri, 09 Feb, 2024 - 21:38

Eoin English

The names of hundreds of health workers who have been killed during the war in Palestine were read out during a poignant vigil organised by Irish healthcare workers in Cork.

About 50 people, drawn from all sectors of the Irish system, including medical students, nurses, doctors, hospital staff and GPs, gathered outside Cork University Hospital (CUH) on Friday night to call out the names of the 403 victims recorded up to January 23.

It included nurses, doctors, dentists, medical scientists, pharmacists, optometrists, lab technicians, psychologists and administrative staff, and it took more than 30 minutes to read out.

Even as UCC medical students Yazan Mustafa and Duaa Tahir Mahmood read the names aloud, they said they knew it was tragically out of date - — it does not include the names of healthcare workers that are missing, presumed dead, or those being held by Israel.

Yazan, whose mother is from the Gaza strip and whose father is from the West Bank, said he has lost extended family members in the conflict.

“It was nice to read the names out but it is heartbreaking to not be able to do something that would have a big impact – this is the least I could do,” he said.

'Doctors are not targets': Medics lead chants as 1,000 people march for Palestine in Cork

“I am proud we had a good attendance. I feel it deep in my heart that I have done my people well, that I have done what they have asked us to do — we see them online screaming for help, asking us to tell the world what is going on and this the least I can do.”

The vigil also heard a strong message of support and solidarity — “we see you, we hear you, we stand with you. You are not a target. Ceasefire now” — which was read out in Arabic.

The widespread damage to the Palestinian healthcare system caused by Israeli attacks since Hamas’ surprise attacks on Israel on October 7, has destroyed hospitals and clinics, and led to a shortage of medical staff and supplies and an urgent need for fuel, electricity and water.

The word Gaza spelled out in candles during the vigil by healthcare workers at Cork University Hospital. Picture: David Creedon

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in late January, only 15 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were partially functional — nine in the south and six in the north.

From October 7 to November 24, there were 74 Israeli assaults on health facilities with 30 hospitals attacked in Gaza, according to Insecurity Insight, a humanitarian association that collates data on threats facing people in dangerous environments.

Human rights groups have called for the Israeli military’s attacks attacks on medical facilities, doctors, nurses, medics and ambulances to be investigated for war crimes.

23.1.2024 HWW-Palestine Update: 403 healthcare workers (4 HCWs /day) were murdered by Israeli Occupation Forces in Palestine since 7th October 2023 including 136 doctors, 118 nurses, and 149 other healthcare workers. #NotATarget #CeaseFireNow #Palestine #Gaza #WarCrimes #GazaWar pic.twitter.com/E4dCeZhu2k
— Healthcare Workers Watch - Palestine (@HCWWatch) January 25, 2024

One of the vigil organisers, Ursula Lynch, said they wanted to send a strong message of support to their counterparts in Gaza who are facing unbearably difficult medical decisions in the workplaces in the absence of pain killers, and other basic supplies.

But she said they also want to send a strong message to those who are looking away, and to those in government who can make this stop.

“The Irish Government has spoken out but its words have been soft,” she said.

We want them to call for a ceasefire, we want them to call what is happening genocide, and we want them to support South Africa’s genocide case at the ICJ.

“How many more lives will it take, how many more babies must die, how many more hospitals must be destroyed?”

The vigil concluded with an emotional rendition of the song, Grace, made famous by Jim McCann, by the youngest attendee at the vigil, Aoibhean Kelleher, age 11.

Solidarity rallies for Gaza will take place in Cork and Dublin on Saturday.

The health ministry in Gaza said on Friday that the overall Palestinian death toll is now approaching 28,000, with about two-thirds of them women and children.