Ethical Questions and Answers – War with Iran, March 2026

According to the rules of medical ethics, a physician is obligated to provide life-saving emergency treatment and to place the patient’s best interests above all other considerations. Alongside these duties, however, a physician is also obligated to safeguard their own physical and mental health and their life, and therefore a balance must be found between these obligations.

A physician’s exposure to danger in a combat situation is comparable to exposure during a pandemic. Below is a link to the Ethics Bureau’s position paper regarding the limits of the medical duty of care during a pandemic.

The employer has a duty to ensure the physician’s personal safety, from which the requirement for a safe working environment is derived. This means that medical institutions must ensure that the procedure is performed in a protected area for both the physician and the patient. If a safe working environment cannot be provided, medical treatment should be carried out in accordance with the treating physician’s professional judgment and in consideration of the security situation. The physician’s professional autonomy allows them to make an informed decision regarding whether to proceed with the medical treatment.

In any case, the patient must be informed if the medical treatment is being performed in a non-protected area.

It is essential that the healthcare system continues to serve as a stronghold of unity and non-discrimination.

During these sensitive and fragile times, we ask physicians to act with responsibility, respect, and patience, and to express themselves with restraint. In addition, careful attention should be given to public discourse, social media posts, media interviews, and public statements in general.

Attached is the position paper: Physicians in the Media – Freedom of Expression versus the Dignity of the Profession.

In the current era, there has been a noticeable increase in the documentation and dissemination of videos and images from incident scenes on social media and across various media outlets. Such documentation is often carried out in real time and may expose injured individuals in ways that compromise their privacy and well-being. This is compounded by growing public curiosity, which can sometimes create pressure to disclose medical information without professional justification.

It is important to reiterate and emphasize that the duty of medical confidentiality applies to every physician and member of the medical staff at all times and in all circumstances — including outside the formal treatment setting, at emergency scenes, and even after the patient’s death. The prohibition against disclosing medical information — whether visual or verbal — is absolute and constitutes a fundamental principle of both medical ethics and the law.

Safeguarding the patient’s dignity, privacy, and personal modesty is our professional and moral responsibility, particularly in sensitive situations in which the patient cannot protect themselves. Please exercise caution and sound judgment in any publication or public sharing of information.

We also wish to stress that accessing a patient’s medical record without a substantive professional need is strictly prohibited and constitutes a serious breach of confidentiality and privacy.

Even in these sensitive days, during wartime, the role of physicians remains the treatment of the wounded.

The Israeli Medical Association and Israel’s physicians will continue to remain faithful to their commitments under international conventions that protect medical personnel and medical facilities.

Physicians have sworn to heal, not to harm.

Upholding moral principles is a defining value of the State of Israel. Throughout history, Israeli physicians have refused to be drawn into the moral and ethical deterioration to which the enemy has descended. We will continue to uphold our professional responsibilities and remain committed to healing and to improving the quality and length of our patients’ lives.

According to the rules of medical ethics, a physician must act to heal the patient and safeguard the patient’s physical and mental health to the best of their ability. However, unlike previous interpretations, a physician is also obligated to protect their own health and life. Therefore, a balance must be found between these two responsibilities.