'Lights on Palestine': 20,000 workers from 230 hospitals in Italy remember the 1,677 colleagues killed in Gaza

'We denounce the genocide of Palestine and put our faces and bodies into it'. The statement, in 'bold' type, stands out in the middle of the identical text that, in stone words, will be read by the more than 20,000 health workers (according to the promoters, at least twice as many) who have gathered at 9pm on 2 October in front of each of the approximately 230 hospitals that from North to South Italy will light up for the Flash Mob organised by the #DigiunoGaza and Sanitari per Gaza networks, 'Lights on Palestine: 100 hospitals for Gaza'.
A mobilisation confirmed, despite the halt to the Global Sumud Flotilla and despite the fact that the Trumpian-initiated twenty-point peace plan is meeting with general and transversal consensus.

The promoters point out that they have asked doctors, nurses and OSS not to carry flags or symbols of associations, unions or parties, but only the flags of Palestine. Under the banner of which lights, torches, lamps and 'whatever source of light the demonstrators bring to the hospitals' will be turned on simultaneously throughout Italy.
The commemoration of the 1,677 health workers killed in Gaza over the last two years of war - 'while they were treating, while they were helping, while they were defending the most basic right of every human being, that of being assisted' - will begin with the collective reading of their names, in relays and a hundred or so each, between the regions. A number that has never stopped: that sad counter stopped three weeks ago, and in the meantime another 47 workers have been killed. With 'a massacre that goes on systematically'. the attempt, is the political judgement of the organisers, 'to eliminate a people'.

Alongside those who were killed, there are the "361 Palestinian medical and health workers detained without trial in Israeli prisons". The testimonies speak of torture, violence, killings, recalls the text of the Flash Mob. It urges: "We remember them, all of them, and press for their release as soon as possible".

The adhesion of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers in many regions is looming large. Leading the way is Lombardy, with almost 5,000 health workers registered with a participation form and 36 hospitals involved, particularly in the province of Milan (2,272 adhesions) and Monza-Brianza with over 400. Next comes Tuscany with 2,267 sanitary wards and 23 hospitals, especially in the province of Florence with 642 accessions, followed by the province of Lucca (286) and Pistoia (219), then Sardinia with 1,955 accessions and 15 hospitals with the province of Sassari (almost 800 accessions) and Oristano the ones with the most registered sanitary wards. Then Apulia with 1,905 accessions and 10 hospitals, Bari (over 1,300 accessions) and Lecce (almost 300) the provinces with the most accessions. In Lazio there are 1,658 accessions registered and 13 hospitals distributed mainly in Rome and its province (1,169 accessions), then in Latina and Viterbo. And again Piedmont with 1,656 health authorities and 26 hospitals, mainly in the province of Turin (782) and Cuneo, Emilia Romagna with 1,620 accessions and 16 hospitals with the most accessions in the province of Bologna (304) followed by Modena (272), Veneto 1,193 health authorities and 14 hospitals, the provinces of Treviso (232) and Padua (208) those with the most accessions.

The one updated to 1 October and which, if it remains in this version, will be read out on 2 October in front of the Italian hospitals that have signed up, is a deeply political document. It looks "at the women and men of the Global Sumud Flotilla", which has meanwhile been intercepted by the Israeli Navy. And thanks them for the "courageous, unarmed, humanitarian and political undertaking", not sparing them accusations of hypocrisy and complicity with governments.