Honour health care workers killed in Gaza by calling for an end to violence: Fredericton nurse

Editor’s note: Seventy-five people attended the Vigil for Health Care Workers Killed in Gaza in front of the New Brunswick Legislature on December 10, 2023. Rebecca Burns, a Fredericton nurse, organized the vigil. Here are her opening remarks –  

Thank you everyone, so much, for joining us for this vigil tonight. This is one of hundreds of such vigils across the world. My name is Rebecca and I’m going to go ahead and tell you I’ve never organized anything like this before. Speaking in front of a crowd is not my comfort zone, but witnessing the incredible courage and persistence of Gazans has changed me forever.

I think many of us have been watching the horrors of the last 65 days with a feeling of powerlessness – feeling as though there is nothing we can do, that our emails and phone calls and social media posts are falling on deaf ears. Seeing image after horrific image of killed and maimed children and babies, but not having the space for collective grieving, furthering that sense of powerlessness. I hope that tonight will provide that opportunity.

Tonight we will honour the lives and legacy of the 278 health care workers who have been killed in Gaza from October 7 to December 6. We have 278 candles to represent each of these heroes. These include 52 physicians, 22 dentists, 26 medical and dental students, 4 medical scientists, 87 nurses, 23 paramedics, 10 physiotherapists, 32 pharmacists, 14 lab technicians, 7 optometrists, and 1 administration staff.

We will read the names of 65 of those killed, one for each day since the attacks began. But we must remember these are not numbers. Each person killed has a story, a legacy. As health care workers and as individuals, these people have touched, and even saved, countless lives. One of the most powerful images I’ve seen is of the white board used for planning surgeries at a hospital in northern Gaza. On October 20 Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila wrote, “Whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us.” Dr. Abu Nujaila was killed by a strike on Al Adwa Hospital on November 21.

American nurse Emily Callahan with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) asked her colleagues in northern Gaza if they had evacuated, and the response she got was “This is our community. This is our family. These are our friends. If they’re going to kill us, we’re going to die saving as many people as we can.”

Their incredible heroism has saved thousands of lives, under the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

Doctors have performed thousands of emergency amputations with no anesthesia available, knowing that many of those amputated may not be eligible to receive prosthetic limbs due to the urgent nature of their surgeries.

OBGYNs have had to perform emergency C-sections without anesthesia, knowing that life-saving incubators may not be available due to power cut offs. Health care workers have been caring for others as their own loved ones are rushed into the same hospital with life-threatening injuries. Losing these professionals during a time of such violence, when their skills, knowledge, and vision are so desperately needed both now and in the aftermath, is a tragedy.

The best way we can honour them is using our voices for peace and a permanent end to the violence in Gaza.

Before we read the names, I would like to share a poem by Em Berry entitled ‘Because of Us’ –