Doctors’ group calls for general healthcare worker strike tomorrow over hostages

The White Coats – Healthcare Professionals for Democracy is calling on doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers from all fields to join the planned strikes tomorrow to demand the return of hostage and in support of their families.

“We can no longer carry on with business as usual and stand by while the values of the sanctity of life and mutual responsibility are trampled before our eyes, and the hostages pay with their lives,” the organization says.

They cite their colleague, Carmel Gat, 40, an occupational therapist from Tel Aviv, who was visiting her parents in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 when Hamas terrorists attacked, killing her mother, Kinneret. Gat was taken captive, as were her brother, Alon, sister-in-law Yarden Roman-Gat, and niece, Geffen, who were also visiting.
Alon was able to escape the captors with his three-year-old daughter Geffen.

Yarden, 36, also initially escaped but was recaptured. She was held hostage in Gaza and released on November 29 as part of ceasefire deal.

Gat was murdered alongside five other hostages by their captors not long before their bodies were found on Saturday night.