Days ago, The Lancet published a response authored by Dr. Danny Epstein, attending physician in the Division of Critical Care at Rambam Health Care Campus and Dr. Daniel King from the Critical Care Unit at Bnei Zion Medical Center, in Haifa, Israel to a piece originally published in August, 2024 accusing Israel for its actions in Gaza as unjust and a brutal attack on civilian targets.
The original article titled “Trauma care supported through a global telemedicine initiative during the 2023–24 military assault on the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestinian territory: a case series,” by Alser and colleagues sparked numerous responses, including the most recent one from the two physicians.
In their response Drs. Epstein and King criticized the article for presenting a one-sided and unbalanced perspective of the conflict. They state, “The authors use a medical and scientific platform to criticize Israel, portraying its actions as an unjust and brutal attack on civilian targets in Gaza.” They further noted that while the article documented the devastating attacks on Palestinian hospitals, it failed to address the reasons these hospitals were targeted, urging readers to reject unsupported claims made in the original piece.
Concluding their response, the physicians expressed the hope to “return to a world where medicine and science serve as common goals and offer opportunities for collaboration and bridge-building.”