- Israeli army surgeon Dr. Sabo Amos described killing Palestinians as “eliminating cockroaches,” framing mass murder as a form of public health.
- The remarks reflect a broader pattern of dehumanization rooted in Israeli institutions and culture, where hatred toward Palestinians is foundational.
For those familiar with the entrenched anti-Palestinian sentiment within Israeli institutions, the latest remarks from an Israeli army doctor come as no surprise. The rhetoric may be shocking in its bluntness, but it is entirely consistent with a broader culture that routinely dehumanizes Palestinians—whether in politics, the military, education, or healthcare. What makes this case particularly disturbing is the way it exposes the moral decay of a profession traditionally dedicated to healing and human dignity.
In a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), Israeli army reservist and public surgeon Dr. Sabo Amos likened killing Palestinians to “eliminating cockroaches,” a grotesque and dehumanizing metaphor reminiscent of genocidal rhetoric from other dark chapters of history.
Amos, who serves as a surgeon with Maccabi Healthcare Services—one of Israel’s largest public health providers—bragged about taking part in “eliminations” during a military campaign in Gaza. The post, which described the murder of “dozens of terrorists,” made no distinction between civilians and combatants. Instead, Amos justified his participation as part of “preventative medicine,” drawing a chilling parallel between Palestinians and vermin.
“After all,” he wrote, “we’re talking about eliminating cockroaches and other loathsome insects.”
This is not Amos’s first flirtation with genocidal language. Last year, in August 2024, he called for Gaza to be “erased,” insisting that “there are no uninvolved people there.” Now, as Gaza reels from an intensified Israeli bombardment that has killed over 50,000 people since October 2023, his remarks lay bare a widespread and terrifying normalization of violence within Israeli state institutions—including its healthcare system.
Even more disturbing is that Amos’s post was paired with an image of Israeli soldiers holding Jewish prayers inside a mosque in northern Gaza, accompanied by the chilling caption: “Every few minutes, machine gun fire or tank shells hit Gaza. Grind them.”
The language is not simply vile—it’s criminal.
Palestinians in Gaza have long endured the brutal consequences of Israel’s military occupation, but what Amos represents is a more insidious threat: the co-opting of humanitarian professions to rationalize mass killing. According to a Palestinian doctor employed in the same healthcare system, such rhetoric is not uncommon behind hospital doors.
“I’ve heard doctors celebrate the bombing of Gaza’s hospitals. Some say the population should be starved. This is not medicine—this is complicity in a genocide,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
“This occupation has extended into medicine itself. We are forced to erase our identities, suppress our grief, and pretend that our colleagues’ genocidal fantasies are normal. They are not.”
Human rights researcher Ghada Majadli, of the Al-Shabaka think tank, said Amos’s remarks expose a deeper rot within Israel’s healthcare system.
“Doctors are now shuttling between hospital wards and killing fields. The line between healer and executioner has been obliterated,” she warned.
Amos’s employer, Maccabi Healthcare Services, has yet to issue a public response, despite operating in mixed cities with large Palestinian populations—raising further concerns about institutional silence and tacit endorsement.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s medical infrastructure lies in ruins. On Sunday alone, Israel killed at least 144 Palestinians, with dozens more murdered Monday. All hospitals in northern Gaza have now ceased operations. The Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, once a beacon of humanitarian aid, is under siege. Over 1,400 medical workers have been killed. The World Health Organization has labeled this a war on healthcare itself.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich openly boasted this week:
“We are conquering, cleansing, and remaining in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed.”
His words mirror Amos’s, but from the pulpit of government.
Even the Israeli Medical Association, under public pressure, was forced to distance itself from Amos. “We strongly condemn any calls for doctors to kill in the name of medicine,” the Ethics Bureau said in a brief statement. But for many Palestinians, that condemnation rings hollow—arriving years too late and doing little to undo the damage.
The dehumanization of Palestinians is no longer confined to fringe voices. It is institutional. It is deliberate. And when a society tolerates doctors calling civilians “cockroaches,” when it rewards those doctors with government funding and military medals, it isn’t merely complicit—it is orchestrating the genocide.
Still, amid this global failure to hold Israel accountable, the Qur’an offers a solemn promise to the oppressed:
“And do not think that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only delays them until a Day when eyes will stare [in horror].”
(Surah Ibrahim, 14:42)
Let the world forget. Let institutions fail. But Allah (SWT) does not.
