A hospital has fired a nurse after she called Israel's war in Gaza a "genocide" during an acceptance speech.
Labour and delivery nurse Hesen Jabr was picking up an award for her work with bereaved mothers who lost their children during pregnancy and childbirth.
Jabr, who is Palestinian-American, had previously been warned not to bring her views "on this divisive and charged issue into the workplace" at NYU Langone Health in New York City.
She posted on Instagram that she was awarded on May 7, when she made her remarks, adding that she was handed a termination letter later in the month.
Hesen Jabr has been sacked from NYU Lagone Health
Getty
In a portion of her acceptance speech, she spoke about mothers who had lost babies during the war in Gaza, saying the award was "deeply personal" to her.
She said: "It pains me to see the women from my country going through unimaginable losses themselves during the current genocide in Gaza.
"Even though I can’t hold their hands and comfort them as they grieve their unborn children and the children they have lost during this genocide, I hope to keep making them proud as I keep representing them here at NYU."
The hospital's spokesperson in an email said Jabr had been warned about her conduct in December. They confirmed Jabr was no longer employee at NYU Langone Health.
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NYU Langone Health has confirmed Jabr has been sacked
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A spokesperson from the hospital said she was warned "following a previous incident, not to bring her views on this divisive and charged issue into the workplace.
"She instead chose not to heed that at a recent employee recognition event that was widely attended by her colleagues, some of whom were upset after her comments.
"As a result, Jabr is no longer an NYU Langone employee."
Israel has repeatedly denied the accusation that it is carrying out a genocide in Gaza.
Smoke rises following Israeli strikes during an Israeli military operation in Rafah
Reuters
Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza has left over 36,000 dead in the past eight months, the local health ministry says.
The war has also caused widespread hunger in the narrow coastal enclave and displaced nearly its entire 2.3 million population.
Israel has pressed on with its offensive on Rafah a day after saying its forces had taken control of a buffer zone along the nearby border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, giving it effective authority over Gaza's entire land frontier.
Gaza medical sources said the 12 Palestinians, whom it said were civilians, had been killed and an unspecified number of others wounded in an Israeli airstrike as they tried to recover the body of a civilian in the centre of Rafah.
Another Palestinian civilian was killed in an airstrike on Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City in the north of the densely populated enclave, the medics said.
