As a result of the humanitarian crisis, the specter of famine, and the life of killing and death experienced by the people and population of Gaza at the hands of the Israeli army, which is tormenting more than two million people and tightening the siege from all fronts, more than 450 doctors from the Quebec region published an open letter in the media yesterday, Thursday, in which they called on their medical associations to denounce the "humanitarian catastrophe" in the Palestinian Gaza Strip and demand an immediate ceasefire and improved access for humanitarian aid convoys to the sector.

The signatories are public health doctors, specialists, and residents, who said in their open letter that they feel deep concern about the "humanitarian catastrophe" ravaging the besieged and afflicted Palestinian sector.

"Remaining silent in the face of the magnitude of this suffering seems to us contrary to our role as doctors and a compromise on our shared humanity," added the doctors who signed under the name "Quebec Doctors Group to Support Gaza."

"In support of our fellow doctors and health professionals in the Gaza Strip who continue to save lives under inhumane conditions, and in harmony with the World Health Organization, Médecins Sans Frontières, Médecins du Monde, and the Canadian Paediatric Society, we request that our medical associations call for a permanent ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip, wrote the "Quebec Doctors Group to Support Gaza."

The group also urged the medical associations to which its members belong to demand securing drinking water for the Palestinians of Gaza and securing freedom of passage to deliver food and humanitarian aid to them and to "release the hostages from both sides."

"According to the United Nations and many other international organizations, international law has been completely undermined in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army repeatedly violates its duty to protect civilian populations, with children and mothers at the forefront of the victims."

The Quebec doctors group added that "70% of deaths are recorded among women and children," and that "90% of infants and pregnant or breastfeeding women suffer from food poverty."

"Other parts of horror stories reach us through the few information sources from Gaza, such as painful amputations of limbs of children no more than one year old, and thousands of surgeries without anesthesia," the group added in its open letter, recalling the "killing of more than 100 civilians while waiting for a shipment of food supplies, in what many observers described as the 'Flour Massacre.'"

The group also added that "attacks target health facilities and Médecins Sans Frontières vehicles," and that "hospitals without electricity are filled with patients and dying people due to lack of staff and equipment."