Gaza Genocide

We currently have over 1,390 staff members in Gaza and 250 in the West Bank.

The majority of our Gaza team are Palestinian and many have now lost homes or family members in the violence. Throughout the war, MSF staff have been working at hospitals and clinics, providing essential medical aid that includes:

•    Surgical care
•    Wound and burn care
•    Maternity care
•    Physiotherapy 
•    Mental health support
•    Vaccinations
•    Outpatient consultations

Hospitals and clinics that we currently support or have previously supported include:

•    Southern Gaza: Nasser Hospital plus the Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis and Al-Attar healthcare centres and the Al-Quarara clinic
(Previously European Gaza Hospital, Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital, Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital and Martyrs and Beni Suhaila clinics)

•    Middle Area: Al-Aqsa Hospital and two field hospitals, plus the Al-Martyrs and Al-Hekker healthcare centres

•    Northern Gaza: MSF Gaza City clinic 
(Previously Al-Shifa Hospital  and Al-Awda Hospital)

MSF teams have been working in Palestine since 1989, providing trauma care, mental health services and running a specialist reconstructive surgery project.

MSF’s activities in the West Bank have been affected by the escalation of violence and movement restrictions that have limited people’s access to essential services, including healthcare. The impact on our patients' mental health has been a particular concern.

We have responded by expanding our work to reach communities directly, help local emergency services and support healthcare centres and clinics.

In Nablus, MSF provides psychological therapy and sexual and gender-based violence services. We also train first responders from the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

In Jenin and Tulkarem, we train paramedics and volunteers to respond to medical emergencies inside the nearby refugee camps when ambulances are unable to reach patients due to violent incursions.

MSF is an impartial organisation. So, we are sometimes asked why we do not currently run medical programmes in Israel.

We have offered our support to Israeli hospitals treating high numbers of casualties. However, Israel has strong emergency and health systems in place.

MSF focuses on filling gaps in healthcare and going wherever that need is greatest. Our teams are working in Gaza and the West Bank – as we have for 20 years – providing medical aid and supporting a healthcare system that urgently lacks both staff and supplies.

This is why we report on what our staff and patients are directly witnessing and experiencing in Gaza. Hospitals are becoming overwhelmed and facing shortages of drugs, medical supplies, and fuel for generators.

The health system is continuously under attack in Gaza. Hospitals and ambulances are under attack, patients and medical staff are being injured and killed. The access to the wounded and sick is impeded by insecurity, lack of fuel and cell phone connectivity.

Most of Gaza’s hospitals are out of service as the electrical power and water have been cut off due to lack of fuel and also to the damage healthcare facilities sustained in multiple attacks. While some hospitals are closed, the others function with very limited resources, often unable to admit new patients due to lack or absence of medical supplies and medication, fuel, food and water. Medical staff working in Gaza are utterly exhausted and do what they can in impossible conditions.

Throughout the war in Gaza, MSF teams have witnessed attacks on health facilities in the Gaza Strip, including raids on hospitals, sieges and the destruction of medical infrastructure and equipment. On several occasions, our teams have also witnessed the detention of medical staff and patients. The healthcare system in Gaza has practically collapsed, while, people’s medical needs are skyrocketing.

Medical staff should not have to choose between saving their own lives and those of their patients.

Staff and patients from MSF have had to leave 14 different health structures and have endured 26 violent incidents (3.7 per month on average), which includes airstrikes damaging hospitals, tanks being fired at agreed deconflicted shelters, ground offensives into medical centres, and convoys fired upon. These attacks show the blatant disregard of medical humanitarian action and failure of deconfliction measures in a war fought with no rules.

Contrary to the repeated public communications of the Israeli authorities, humanitarian aid has been denied or severely impeded since the beginning of the war, making it near impossible to provide even basic healthcare. This is not a logistics problem; it is a political problem.

Instrumentalising aid to falsely create an illusion of safety and minimal service provision in Gaza, in order to maintain the pretence of Israel’s adherence to International Humanitarian Law, is pure propaganda and is only endangering civilians further. Aid, when it is not completely blocked, comes in dribs and drabs, and can in no way adequately meet the immense needs of people in Gaza.

Water supply is critical throughout Gaza. Due to a lack of fuel, desalination plants are operating at a reduced level. There is more imported food available in some markets, where it gets through in private company trucks, but it is unaffordable for most Gazans as prices of basic commodities have skyrocketed.

Northern Gaza remains isolated, receiving negligible amounts of humanitarian aid in contrast to the actual needs. OCHA said in June that the Israeli authorities had facilitated only 49% of the planned humanitarian assistance missions to northern Gaza. The rest were impeded, denied access, or cancelled due to logistical, operational or security reasons.

MSF visits to northern Gaza have illustrated the absence of essential supplies, clear and safe supply routes, and the devastation of numerous hospitals. The recent MSF report denounces Gaza’s “silent killings” from preventable diseases and lack of access to medical care

However, it’s important to note that some medical staff in hospitals like Indonesian hospital and Al Awda hospital continue working to rebuild, refurbish and treat patients. Distribution of aid within the strip from the North to the South and from the South to the North is near impossible.

Border restrictions and the limited options for crossing into Gaza have made our supply operations extremely difficult. Israeli authorities imposed a full siege—the longest since the beginning of the war—blocking all aid and depriving Palestinians of essential services and the basic necessities of life, including access to water.

Access to safe, clean drinking water is particularly difficult in Gaza, exacerbating living conditions, hygiene and health issues.

In the first year of the war, MSF delivered 636 tons of logistics and medical equipment (around 130 trucks). This included medicines, wound dressings, surgical kits, generators and two field hospitals.