* Demands equal application of international law
Foremost South African human rights advocate and medical professional, Dr. Fatima Hendricks, has strongly condemned the deliberate targeting of critical healthcare infrastructure in Gaza by the Israeli regime, describing it as a grave violation of international humanitarian law.
Speaking at a joint press conference held on Saturday, December 20, in Lagos, Nigeria, Dr. Hendricks lamented that a significant number of medical facilities in Palestine have been rendered completely inoperable due to sustained bombardments.
The media engagement was organised by the Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC), in collaboration with the Pan-African Palestine Solidarity Network (PAPSN) and Healthcare Workers 4 Palestine South Africa.
Dr. Hendricks, who was recently honoured by Muslim News Nigeria as the Global Advocate for Peace and Justice 2024/2025, described the situation in Gaza as one of “structural annihilation and ethnic cleansing” of the Palestinian people.
She further condemned the destruction of medical training institutions, which she described as a strategic effort to dismantle the future of Palestinian healthcare by halting the education and development of the next generation of health professionals.
“This is not only a war on Gaza’s present but an attempt to destroy its future,” she said.
“As healthcare workers, we are trained to recognise patterns of harm and the pattern unfolding in Gaza is neither accidental nor defensible,” she said.
The South African activist highlighted that hospitals have been repeatedly bombed, ambulances destroyed, and healthcare workers systematically targeted and killed.
Quoting data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Dr. Hendricks revealed that more than 1,700 health professionals have lost their lives, including 165 doctors, 260 nurses, and hundreds of paramedics.
“The average daily death toll of healthcare workers is two. About 300 remain in Israeli detention, many without charge. Some, like Dr. Adnan Bursh, an orthopedic surgeon from Al-Shifa Hospital, were tortured, raped, and killed while in custody. His body has yet to be returned to his family.”
She also referenced the ongoing detention of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a neonatologist at Kamal Adwan Hospital, who has been held since December 27, 2024, without formal charges. “His health and well-being are of grave concern, alongside many others suffering similar conditions,” she said.
Dr. Hendricks said genocide in Gaza has transcended beyond mass graves to a mass disabling project.
“Thousands – particularly children – are surviving bombardment only to live with permanent amputations, spinal injuries, traumatic brain damage, and irreversible psychological trauma.
“The genocide is a Mass Dis-Abling crime against humanity, with the highest number of amputees in modern history.
“When rehabilitation services are denied, when prosthetics are unavailable, when mental health support is impossible, disability becomes permanent by design.”
In Gaza, saving lives has become a punishable act
Dr. Hendricks also called attention to the criminalisation of healthcare services in Gaza.
According to her, doctors, nurses, paramedics and hospital administrators have been arrested, detained, imprisoned and killed.
“Some while on duty, some without charge, some without access to legal representation. Their only crime: healthcare for the weak, vulnerable and persecuted.
“A system that imprisons healthcare professionals is not defending security. It is dismantling survival,” she stated.
Children in prison, collapse of moral order
Speaking further, the South African rights advocate criticised the imprisonment of children by the Israeli authorities.
She said a society that imprisons children has crossed into moral collapse.
“According to Btsalem, 350 children are in prison, and according to human rights organizations defense for children international – Palestine and Save the children, between 500-700 Palestinian children are detained and prosecuted in the Israeli Military Court System.
“Minors – already traumatized by bombardment, displacement, and loss – are detained under conditions that violate international child protection standards. Childhood, in this context, is treated not as a protected stage of life, but as a security threat.”
Dr. Hendricks said there is no legal doctrine or security argument that justifies the routine detention of children in Palestine. 
International law loses meaning when applied inconsistently
The global advocate said her intervention is not a call for sympathy but for accountability.
She called for the consistent application of international law, noting the spirit of the law loses its meaning when applied unevenly.
“Healthcare must be protected or humanitarian law becomes fiction,” she said.
Dr. Hendricks said South Africa’s position on Gaza is not political opportunism but moral continuity.
She said the African country does not speak on Palestine from abstraction. “We speak from history,” she emphasised.
“We recognize the architecture of apartheid – not only in racial segregation, but in legal manipulation, enforced inequality, arbitrary detention, and the weaponization of state power against a defined population,” she said. READ MORE HERE
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