Thirty doctors, nurses and medical professionals based in the UK have written a joint open letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy to demand an immediate and total ban on arms sales to Israel and a range of urgent medical and humanitarian interventions.

According to the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, all of the signatories have volunteered in Gaza since October. The signatories note that “with only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured, or both”.

The doctors are “a multi-faith and multi-ethnic group, united not by any political motivation, but by the desire to care for those who are suffering”, writing in their capacity of being “among the only neutral observers who have been permitted to enter the Gaza Strip since 7 October”.

Some signatories have themselves been direct victims of Israeli airstrikes while residing in medical staff’s accommodation, ICJP says.

Citing domestic British law, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and Britain’s own Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, the letter spoke of both a legal and ethical obligation by the British government, saying that a ban on arms sales “is the morally as well as legally right thing to do.”

The signatories recommend, in line with International Court of Justice rulings, that military, economic, and diplomatic support be withdrawn from Israel, with a full arms embargo implemented until a permanent ceasefire is established.