Genocide in Gaza
An unprecedented humanitarian crisis continues to unfold in Gaza.
The war in Gaza has turned a chronic humanitarian crisis into a catastrophe. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are clear: we are witnessing Israel commit genocide.
Over the past three years, Israeli forces have systematically destroyed the conditions necessary for life in the Gaza Strip — attacking hospitals, striking tented camps, destroying vital civilian infrastructure and choking off access to food, water, medicines, and other basic needs for survival. No one is spared.
Our staff have worked to treat wounded people and supply overwhelmed hospitals as indiscriminate airstrikes and a state of siege threatens millions of people, including children.
Despite the ceasefire which came into effect on October 10, 2025, insecurity, airstrikes, military incursions, and restrictions on humanitarian access continue to result in casualties and deaths among the civilian population. Humanitarian conditions remain catastrophic, with severely inadequate access to healthcare leading to widespread suffering.Families who have been displaced multiple times are now experiencing another devastation: returning to find nothing left, their homes and sometimes whole neighbourhoods, razed to the ground.
We are horrified by the events of Oct. 7, 2023 – both the brutal mass killing of civilians perpetrated by Hamas in Israel and the relentless assault on Palestinian people in Gaza.
Content accurate as of September 2026. Given evolving administrative and access conditions in Gaza/West Bank, MSF’s registration and operational context may change. This content reflects the most current information available at the time of publication.
What is happening in Gaza?
By August 2026, more than 74,000 people had been killed in Gaza, including 15 MSF staff. A further 174,500 were injured.
Since the announcement of the ceasefire on October 10, 2025, at least 1,300 Palestinians have reportedly been killed, and more than 4,398 others have been injured.
Palestinians in Gaza are almost fully reliant on aid for basic survival. Although commercial trucks are entering the Gaza Strip, the amount of goods allowed in by Israeli authorities is far from sufficient, is deliberately blocked and continues to keep Palestinians lives hanging by a thread.
MSF has seen the deliberate targeting of medics and hospitals; the use of starvation as a weapon of war with a blockade starving people of food, water, fuel and medical supplies; the militarization of aid;
In short, we are witnessing a genocide. and, at times during the crisis, the massacre of starving people lining up for aid.
Since October 2025, the Gaza Strip has become increasingly fragmented by a military-controlled ‘yellow line’ — a poorly defined and constantly shifting boundary. According to an assessment by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Israeli military effectively controls approximately 65 per cent of the Gaza Strip and continues to carry out strikes and ground incursions throughout the territory. This situation poses a major risk to civilians and humanitarian personnel, while severely restricting freedom of movement and access to the territory.
Through deliberate actions — including forced displacement, annexation, and mass killings — Israel is systematically destroying the conditions necessary for Palestinian life. Water insecurity is worsening, and most people lack adequate shelter, with almost 2 million people (94 per cent of Gaza’s population) needing shelter assistance or essential household items.
Much of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure has been intentionally destroyed. Hospitals have been completely overwhelmed and have faced running out of critical supplies. Some medical facilities have been hit by indiscriminate bombing while others have been under siege.
Israel took steps to stop MSF and more than 30 other NGOs from working in Gaza and the West Bank, by deregistering them in early 2026. MSF remains open to ongoing dialogue with Israeli authorities to maintain our critical medical operations in Gaza and the West Bank, and to ensure that MSF can continue delivering essential, lifesaving medical care to those in desperate need.
We are witnessing a genocidal campaign as the very fabric of Palestinian life and society is being wiped away in Gaza.
This campaign not only displaces Palestinians on a massive scale but also seeks to deny them — and future generations — their right of safe return, effectively erasing entire communities from the map.
How can I help MSF?
Across the Middle East, many communities are struggling to access the health care they need.
Your support helps MSF deliver humanitarian medical assistance to people affected by crises throughout the region.
What is MSF doing in Gaza?
We currently have more than 1,000 staff members in Gaza and more than 170 in the West Bank.
Most of our Gaza team are Palestinian, and many have 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
- physiotherapy
- maternity and pediatric care
- sexual and reproductive; health services
- outpatient consultations
- vaccination;
- mental health support.
MSF teams are also doing water distribution.
However, massive challenges related to supply as well as sieges and evacuation orders on various hospitals are pushing our activities onto an ever-smaller territory and limiting our response.
Medical services
Between November 2023 and Sept. 2026, MSF has worked to bring lifesaving healthcare to people in Gaza where possible, including:
outpatient consultations
people treated for diarrhea
surgical interventions
cases of trauma, including physical violence
inpatients admitted
vaccinations
emergency presentations
individual mental health consultations
births assisted
Other humanitarian activities
Water and sanitation
Since January 2026, MSF distributed 490 million litres of water and produced more than 520 million litres of clean water through desalination.
In partnership with local organization the Agriculture Development Association, known as PARC, MSF implemented water and sanitation activities in camp shelters in Deir El Balah and Khan Younis. These included:
- building latrines
- supplying hygiene kits
- providing water treatment units supporting a camp hosting 70 families (400 people total) of people living with disabilities with accessible latrines and showers.
What is MSF calling for?
- The genocide in Gaza must stop. The blockade must be lifted to allow the delivery of independent humanitarian aid at scale.
- The immediate protection of medical workers and health facilities, including the immediate release of detained health workers and the full respect of international humanitarian law.
- A clear and predictable medical evacuation system must be urgently established – with safe passage, no family separation and safe and voluntary guaranteed return to Gaza after treatment. Furthermore, people who want to leave Gaza must be allowed to do so – provided their right to safe and voluntary return is guaranteed.
- Governments must stop sending weapons to Israel that are used to kill and main our patients and to sustain its genocidal campaign.
- Israel must end all coercive measures aimed towards annexation.
- Israel must begin following the binding orders from the International Court of Justice to take immediate action to prevent genocide.
What is MSF seeing in Gaza?
The situation in Gaza has been described by MSF teams as ‘apocalyptic’.
- MSF is witnessing clear signs of genocide as the very fabric of society and Palestinian life is being wiped away in Gaza. We are seeing firsthand the medical and humanitarian catastrophe being inflicted on people in the Gaza strip, including the full blockade of aid, forced displacement, mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment.
- MSF condemns Israel’s continuous killing and injuring of civilians in Gaza, as well as its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank
- The Yellow Line has become a core feature of encirclement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip
- For three years, MSF teams have witnessed the devastating medical consequences of the Israeli genocide that will have an impact for generations to come
- The past three years have clearly illustrated Israel’s strategy to slowly but surely ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. World leaders must take action to hold Israel accountable, and to stop Israel’s ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
How is MSF responding in the West Bank?
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 through helping local emergency services and supporting healthcare centres and clinics.
- In Nablus and Hebron, MSF is providing psychosocial support, care for sexual and gender-based violence, and training for psychological, emergency and first response
- In Hebron we run eight mobile clinics providing general healthcare, sexual reproductive health and mental health support, and run rapid responses for incidents such as home demolitions, injuries, or attacks on the water and sanitation system
- Our activities in Jenin and Tulkarem have closed as of May 2026.
MSF in conflicts
Around one-quarter of our medical humanitarian assistance is for people caught in armed conflict.
Armed conflict devastates lives and destroys communities. Targeted, harassed and caught in hardship and poverty, people are forced into flight or to live under siege and face indiscriminate attacks. Access to basic needs such as food and medical care is often disrupted.
Comprehensive medical and humanitarian support is vital, though health services are often scarce.
MSF provides medical care based on needs alone and works hard to reach people who need help the most.
Frequently asked questions about our work in Gaza and our commitment to impartiality and neutrality.
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