Healthcare workers at Addenbrooke’s Hospital have begun staging weekly vigils to protest the deaths of healthcare workers in Gaza.

Addenbrooke’s Hospital, which is owned and managed by Cambridge University, saw 200 of its staff protest on Friday, gathering outside to read the names of healthcare workers killed.

This comes after the seizure of Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, by Israeli forces in their ground offensive on the Palestinian enclave, and the WHO’s description of the medical institution as a “death zone”.

Dr Hani Al-Astal, a Gazan gastroenterology trainee working at Addenbrooke’s, said: “Hospitals should be treated like places of worship, places where love and care can be transferred from doctors to patients.”

The 200 staff held Palestinian flags and chanted: “In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians.”

Sameh Ragheb, the vigil’s organiser, said: “we are healthcare workers asking for the safety of healthcare workers - to be able to work in proper conditions with proper supplies so they can continue their moral mission.”

Israel had claimed Hamas was concealing an underground command centre in Al-Shifa to justify the raid.

Earlier today, senior doctors at Gaza’s Indonesian hospital told the BBC that "the same scenario at al-Shifa is expected to happen” unless the Qatar-brokered four-day pause in fighting goes ahead. 

Ragheb described his frustration at the UK Parliament’s recent vote against a ceasefire, stating the British public “are demanding that their government do something”, but the MPs are instead “standing with the oppressor.”

The demonstrations are being organised by Cambridge Stop the War Coalition, who have run a number of vigils and protests over the past weeks.