Hundreds of protesters stage march to demand end to violence against medical staff

Hundreds of protesters march from the Western Galilee town of Mazra’a to the Nahariya police station to demand that the police stop the cycle of violence that claimed the life of Dr. Abdallah Awad, 30, a pediatrician who was murdered yesterday at a Clalit health clinic in Kfar Yasif,

The protest organizers, The White Coats – Healthcare Professionals for Democracy group, say: “The health system in Israel — heterogeneous, inclusive and tolerant — bows its head in pain and shame for the malignant spread of violence in Arab society.”

Dr. Liron Gilad, a family doctor at a nearby clinic, says at the start of the march: “Medical professionals are abandoned. There are no police, no laws. What have we come to?”

Medical professionals wear white doctors’ coats and walk behind a sign that says “Abandoned.” Some have dabbed their coats in red paint.

Awad’s widow, Sabah, a nurse at Galilee Medical Center’s ENT department, wears her husband’s white coat. “I hope his death is the last,” she says.

Awad’s father, Qassem, says: “My son didn’t have an argument with anyone. I educated him to help people and speak nicely. The police haven’t done enough.”

“Doctors are symbols of help, support and caring for the sick,” says Mazra’a Mayor Fuad Awad, a close relative of Abdallah. “There’s no Arab citizen who isn’t exposed to the violence. We feel abandoned.”

Abdallah Awad was filling in for another doctor when he was killed. One protester, who wishes to remain anonymous, says “he was killed by mistake.”

Awad was the 29th Arab Israeli to die in a violent incident since the start of the year, more than double the number of Arab homicide victims as of the same point last year. The total tallies of Arab victims for 2023 and 2024 were the highest by far in Israel’s history.