Palestine: MSF forced to suspend activities amid intensified Israeli offensive in Gaza City
The relentless Israeli offensive in Gaza City has forced Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to suspend essential medical activities in the area due to the rapidly deteriorating security situation. This includes continued airstrikes and advancing tanks less than one kilometre from our healthcare facilities. The escalating attacks from Israeli forces have created an unacceptable level of risk for our staff, forcing us to suspend lifesaving medical activities.
“We have been left with no choice but to stop our activities as our clinics are encircled by Israeli forces,” says Jacob Granger, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza. “This is the last thing we wanted, as the needs in Gaza City are enormous, with the most at-risk people – infants in neonatal care, people with severe injuries and life-threatening illnesses – unable to move and in grave danger.”
While large numbers of people have fled south due to evacuation orders, there are still hundreds of thousands in Gaza City, who are unable to leave and have no other option but to stay. Those who are able to leave face an impossible choice: either remain in Gaza City under intense military operations and the deterioration of law and order, or abandon what’s left of their houses, their belongings and their memories, to move to areas where humanitarian conditions are rapidly collapsing.
At the same time, partially functional hospitals across the Gaza Strip are overwhelmed due to severe shortages of staff, supplies and fuel. Patients face enormous obstacles reaching care, often arriving late and in critical condition. Last week alone, and despite the rising offensive, our clinics in Gaza City carried out over 3,640 consultations and treated 1,655 patients suffering from malnutrition. We also treated patients with severe trauma injuries and burns, as well as pregnant women and others requiring ongoing medical care who are unable to leave the city. This shows the scale of medical needs.
Although MSF has been forced to suspend activities in Gaza City, we aim to continue supporting key services in Ministry of Health facilities, including Al Helou and Al Shifa hospitals, while they continue to function.
Access to and the provision of safe drinking water, food, shelter and care is increasingly restricted. People in Gaza City have been repeatedly and relentlessly bombed. They are exhausted and are being deliberately deprived of the essentials needed to survive.
We call for an immediate halt to the violence and concrete measures at the necessary scale to protect civilians. Israeli authorities must immediately guarantee unhindered access and security for humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza City, and acceptable conditions for the safe and sustained delivery of medical care and humanitarian aid—conditions that are clearly not in place today.
