ISRAEL is systematically killing healthcare workers and journalists in Gaza, doctors said today, in a direct plea for British media to scrutinise their country’s complicity in genocide.

At a London press conference on Gaza’s media blackout, hospital doctors gave first-hand accounts of how colleagues and reporters have been abducted, tortured and killed.

The British Palestinian Committee (BPC) and the UK Gaza Community (UKGC) hosted the event hours after Reporters Without Borders (RSF) revealed that Israeli armed forces were behind a third of the 54 journalists killed worldwide because of their work in 2024.

“Palestine is the most dangerous country for journalists, recording a higher death toll than any other country over the past five years,” the organisation said in its annual report, describing the number of killings as “an unprecedented bloodbath.”

RSF has filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court  for “war crimes committed against journalists by the Israeli army.”

It said more than 145 journalists had been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since October 2023.

At least 1,000 health workers have also been killed there during the Israeli onslaught.

At the conference, Dr Mohamed Ashraf showed photos of several colleagues who have been killed or abducted by Israeli forces since October 7.

“These are real people, these are real stories,” he said, describing how Dr Mosab Samman was abducted from Nasser Hospital in March, saying that the only offence he committed was volunteering to help his people inside the hospital.

“We know nothing about Mosab, his family know nothing about him, and we are not sure if he is still in prison or he has been killed in the harsh conditions they torture him in.

“Many of my colleagues have been abducted. They have been in prison and no-one talks to them about any offence they have committed apart from they’ve been taken from inside the hospital.”

Dr Ashraf revealed that he had texted Dr Samman, pleading with him to leave Nasser Hospital shortly after Israeli forces abducted their colleagues at Al-Shifa Hospital.

“He said ‘my grandfather is paralysed and I’m the only doctor still there in the emergency department’,” Dr Ashraf said.

He told of another friend and emergency medicine doctor who was held in prison for three months.

“He was starved, he was tortured, he was humiliated, he was undressed and the only thing that they called him was ‘the doctor we have abducted’,” said Dr Ashraf.

“This is the systematic approach that they use: starve people, disrupt their healthcare facilities, kill or abduct healthcare workers and journalists as well.

“There’s no one to treat [the wounded], there’s no one to tell the story, there’s no one to give food — this is the systematic approach to erase the Palestinian people inside Gaza, [it’s the] definition of genocide.”

British Palestinian and London-based co-ordinator of the Sameer Project Hala Sabbah said daily updates from the manager of Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza showed “how it’s being attacked by drones and quadcopters are going there and killing healthcare workers, killing doctors. 

“Healthcare workers are being targeted. Kamal Adwan Hospital is one of many hospitals being targeted,” she said.

Dr Mahim Qureshi, a London-based vascular surgeon who recently returned from Gaza, described brain surgery being performed with rudimentary equipment on children as young as eight who had been shot and paralysed.

She said: “There was a hospital designed for 150 inpatients with 700 to 1,000, and 3,000 more people sheltering in and around the hospital.

“People presented late with illnesses and ailments that, if seen earlier, would have been entirely treatable. For many of them, by the time they got to us, it was too late.”

She told of meeting a doctor in a displacement camp who had been forced to stay in Al-Shifa hospital for more than 40 days before it was destroyed.

“There were more than 200 dead bodies outside,” she said. 

“They received permission and exited the hospital in order to bury their dead, [but] they were shot at and forced back inside. Shortly afterwards forklifts arrived to remove the bodies.”

Researcher Khem Rogaly said the British Palestinian Committee’s forthcoming report on Britain’s role in Israel’s crimes will show that “this is not only about arms export licences, but active collaboration, logistical support, supplies and supporting missions that have been ongoing for 14 months.”

“This means Britain is not only failing in its third-party obligations under international law, but [is a] longstanding active participant in the crimes outlined today,” he said.

Israel denies it intentionally harms journalists, but admits that some have been killed in air strikes on military targets.