Why is Peace More Fundamental Than Health and Well-Being: Internal Displacement,Blockades,and Violations of Medical Neutrality

Abstract

Intense armed conflict in Gaza gives rise to record-breaking humanitarian catastrophe. More than destructions of physical residence, the cost to health and well-being remains pressing concerns among people displaced by war. While the international community provide various forms of assistance, deliveries are challenged as blockades, according to reports, are in effect. Access to aid is reported to have been effectively restricted. Alongside with this are the reports of violations of medical neutrality – the targeting of medical facilities, making access to healthcare, treatment, and medical supplies extremely difficult if not impossible. Drawing on the WHO's framework of social determinants of health in conflict settings, this article situates the Gaza violence as a clear and profound case of how conflict dismantles the structural foundations of health and well-being. While mere peace does not guarantee positive health outcomes, peace inherits a cardinal role when war involves aid restrictions and breaches of medical neutrality. Peace becomes more fundamental to health and well-being under these cases of conflict environment. This is not to argue that peace is alternative to health. Rather, as drawn from the Gazan experience, peace is argued to be the foundation of health, indivisible to it. Peace, therefore, precedes health.