Palestinian doctors to walk out after PA backtracks on deal

Middle East Monitor  /  September 12, 2023

The Palestinian Doctors’ Syndicate has ordered all its members to walk out at 6pm local time today after the Palestinian Authority failed to follow through with agreements it made with the body yesterday.

Medical staff were due to walk out today but this was called off after a last-minute agreement between the Syndicate and the authorities, however in a Facebook post published today, the Doctors’ Syndicate “will instruct all government hospital doctors to leave work today at six in the evening in all Ministry of Health hospitals, until the government provides protection for doctors and applies the law to abusers.”

It added that authorities had “backtracked a deal made yesterday.”

Patients have been asked to head to private hospitals if they need to be seen after 6pm tonight, with ambulances being told not to transport the sick to any government run hospitals.

Last week a Palestinian court ordered the Doctors Syndicate to stop their strikes and for their workers to return to work immediately.