Two motions critical of Israel have been eliminated from next week's British Medical Association conference.

The BMA's London regional council and its Enfield and Haringey branch put down identical motions complaining about Israel's treatment of Palestinian medical personnel in Gaza.

But the conference agenda committee has tabled its own resolution, deploring all regimes which hamper the work of doctors and other medical staff but, significantly, does not single out any country.

Professor David Katz, chairman of the Jewish Medical Association, said: "Last year the BMA decided that if there was a motion criticising a particular country, it would consult the doctors there before it did anything else."

The BMA will have its first Jewish president when Professor Sir Michael Marmot takes the post for the coming year.