Six doctors protested at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, drawing attention to the escalating public health crisis in Gaza caused by Israel's ongoing military onslaught, which has killed at least 40,000 people, including 16,000 children. The war began after a Hamas-led attack on Israel October 7, 2023, that killed around 1,200 people, including many civilians and children.
The gathered medical professionals met on the fourth floor of the McCormick Place Convention Center and described their experiences in occupied Gaza, hoping to bring attention to the suffering and collapse of medical infrastructure. According to reporting from The Nation, pediatric intensive care doctor Tanya Haj-Hassan said she held the hands of dying children “taking their last, final gasps with no family alive able to comfort them.” Internal medicine and pediatrics doctor Ahmad Yousaf described a pregnant woman with severe burns all over her body who they knew "was going to die there and her baby would die there, and there was nothing we could do."
