Over 4,000 scientists from across the world, including 14 Nobel laureates and five Fields Medal winners, have issued a statement urging the government of Israel to “act immediately” to end the “human-made humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.
“We are deeply distressed by the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We find it unbearable that an artificial shortage of food appears to be leading to a famine-like situation,” reads the statement mailed to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, and Israel’s representative to the UN Danny Danon.
“We are shocked by the enforced denial of medical facilities, the absence of even a modicum of education for children, the systematic annihilation of civil infrastructure (including universities), and the apparent general disregard for the rights, well-being, and life of the civilian population of Gaza,” the statement adds, calling upon the government of Israel to end the humanitarian crisis.
Scientists who have signed the statement include Nobel laureates from the Netherlands, the USA, UK, Japan, and Italy, theoretical physicists Gerard ‘t Hooft and David Politzer, mathematician Roger Penrose, and physicists Takaaki Kajita, and Giorgio Parisi.
Indian scientists who have signed the statement include those associated with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans).
Condemning the attack by Hamas in October 2023 and the inhuman conditions under which hostages are held, the statement also calls upon Hamas to immediately release hostages.
Referring to the current situation as part of a complicated causal web of events, the statement condemns “egregious actions, including the extinguishing of several tens of thousands of innocent lives in Gaza (including, reportedly, almost a thousand infants below the age of one)”.
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It adds that nothing can justify the horrors currently being visited on a civilian population, and the humanitarian emergency demands immediate intervention.
“As scientists working collectively for humanity, we urgently call upon all governments, and all relevant international institutions around the world, to exert all available means so there is a halt to this tragedy,” it says.
Fields Medal winners, including mathematicians Alessio Figalli (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) and David B Mumford (Prof Emeritus, Harvard and Brown Universities, USA) have also signed the statement. The highest number of signatories are from Europe, followed by North America.
