MSF condemns the killing of our staff and their family members
10 January 2024
On the morning of 8 January 2024, a shell broke through the wall of an MSF shelter in Khan Younis, Gaza, where over 100 MSF staff and their family members were seeking shelter. The five-year-old daughter of an MSF staff member was critically injured by the strike and underwent surgery at the Gaza European Hospital. However, on January 9, she died of her injuries. Three other people were injured in the strike.
“We are outraged and deeply saddened by the death of yet another family member of our MSF staff. This strike on civilians is unacceptable and, once again, goes to show that it doesn’t matter where you are in Gaza, nowhere is safe,” said Thomas Lauvin, MSF project coordinator in Gaza. “The shell did not detonate on impact, otherwise many more of our staff and their families would have most likely been killed.”
Prior to the incident, MSF notified Israeli forces that the shelter near Gaza European Hospital was housing MSF staff and their families. Furthermore, no evacuation orders were issued before the strike. While MSF is not able to confirm the origin of the shell, it appears to be similar to those used by Israeli tanks. MSF has contacted Israeli authorities and is seeking further explanation.
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, four MSF staff members have been killed, in addition to numerous family members. MSF-run health facilities and MSF convoys have repeatedly been targeted. On 18 November 2023, an MSF evacuation convoy came under fire in Gaza city. Two people were killed in what immediately appeared as a deliberate attack against clearly identified MSF cars. Both were family members of MSF staff, one of them was also a volunteer supporting MSF medical teams at Al-Shifa hospital. On 21 November 2023 two MSF doctors, Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Dr Ahmad Al Sahar, were killed during a strike on Al Awda Hospital, then one of the last remaining functional hospitals in Northern Gaza. Attacks on medical facilities, which have become systemic over the course of the war, are a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law.
MSF medical teams are working around the clock in five hospitals and a primary healthcare facility in central and southern Gaza to respond to overwhelming influxes of patients. Our Palestinian and international staff are providing surgical support and wound care, including to patients with traumatic injuries and severe burns, physiotherapy, outpatients' consultations, and mental health services. Our teams are also receiving pregnant women with medical complications at the Emirati Maternity Hospital and we have donated over 50 tonnes of medication and medical supplies to health centres in Gaza. In the West Bank our teams provide emergency care and mental healthcare in response to an escalation of violence and movement restrictions blocking access to healthcare.
We reiterate our call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza. Indiscriminate violence against civilians must end now.