An open letter signed by more than 2,000 doctors worldwide refuses to call for releasing all hostages in the Israel-Hamas war after “debate and feedback” on the matter.

The letter is set to be published in “the coming days” in the Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal whose website receives more than 36 million visits a year. 

“The purpose of this letter is to focus on health and immediate humanitarian actions,” the statement reads. “It recognises everyone’s humanity, regardless of background or nationality.” 

Yet after 24 hours of feedback and discussion, a call to release all hostages was removed from the letter. “Please note that there has been an amendment to this letter. ‘The immediate and unconditional release of all hostages’ was added as an addendum,” it says, and 24 hours later was removed “based on debate and feedback.” 

The “call to action” is signed by healthcare professionals across the world, including doctors at Boston University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Oxford. 

The decision to remove the call for hostages to be released was noted on X by a journalist and rebbetzin, Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, and is stirring controversy.

“I guess primum non nocere doesn’t apply to Jews,” she notes, referring to the oath doctors take, “First, do no harm,” which stems from the ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates. 

The letter states that Hamas killed 1,400 Israelis in the October 7 attacks and says Israeli forces have killed more than 4,300 Palestinians since then. 

“These events occurred in the context of the decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories,” the letter continues. “This escalation of hatred and violence needs to stop.”

The doctors call for upholding human rights and health despite refusing to call for the release of all hostages. 

“The clarion call of the global health movement is to act for humanity regardless of borders or identity,” the statement reads. “As global health professionals, we strive for health, human flourishing, equity, peace, justice, and the end of colonialism in all its manifestations. We also unequivocally condemn violence against Indigenous peoples globally.” 

The refusal to call for the release comes as more than 200 hostages — some of whom have been let go — have been kidnapped and held by Hamas since October 7, as The New York Sun has reported. 

The Lancet published a call to action on October 12, signed by 1,500 Israeli healthcare professionals, to condemn the barbaric acts of Hamas and return Israeli hostages. 

“Videos have emerged of bodies being mutilated on the streets of Gaza, of hostages paraded, humiliated, beaten in front of cheering crowds, of hostages tied and bound in abhorrent conditions, of Israeli children being hit by both Gazan adults and children,” the statement read. 

“We urgently call on the international medical community, a community that is committed to the preservation of human life, to condemn the savage massacre, to immediately call for guarantees for the safety and health of all those being kept hostage, and to unequivocally call for the immediate and unconditional return of our families and friends who have been cruelly taken hostage,” the Israeli doctors urged.

Instead, more than 2,000 doctors worldwide have responded by signing a letter that refuses to call for those hostages’ unconditional release.