Palestine: Huge influx of aid urgently needed amid catastrophic conditions in Gaza
Despite the March 1, 2026, deadline for 37 NGOs to leave Palestine, MSF is committed to remaining to provide assistance.
Content accurate as of Feb. 27, 2026. Given evolving administrative and access conditions in Gaza/West Bank, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)’s registration and operational context may change. This content reflects the most current information available at the time of publication.
MSF calls for a massive scale-up of lifesaving assistance and unhindered humanitarian access amid the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza, where lives continue to be lost due to sustained violence and persistent aid restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities. Despite these policies, MSF remains committed to provide assistance in Palestine for as long as possible, working under our registration with the Palestinian Authority.
Under international humanitarian law, as the occupying power, Israeli authorities are obliged to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance. Yet restrictive new rules, which require 37 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to leave Gaza and the West Bank by March 1, 2026, threaten to drastically reduce already insufficient aid. Governments around the world must ensure the International Court of Justice decisions are respected, including facilitating the provision of humanitarian assistance.
“MSF is working to preserve services for patients in an increasingly constrained environment,” says Christopher Lockyear, MSF secretary general. “The needs are immense and drastic restrictions have deadly consequences. Hundreds of thousands of patients need medical and mental health care and tens of thousands require long-term medical, surgical and psychological follow-up.”
Despite the U.S.-led peace plan, Israeli authorities continue to heavily restrict and even deny water, shelter and medical care. Living conditions are maintained at undignified levels and violence continues to kill and injure Palestinians on a daily basis. In recent weeks, humanitarian aid reaching Gaza has significantly decreased. In the West Bank, medical and humanitarian needs continue to escalate amid alarming increases in violence, forced displacements, armed settler attacks, home demolitions, settlement expansion and obstruction to healthcare.
“MSF’s programs are critical lifelines. Medical care and humanitarian assistance on this scale cannot easily be replaced.”
Christopher Lockyear, secretary general
The withdrawal of MSF’s registration by Israeli authorities is already impacting patient care, as deregistration compounds the strain on a health system devastated over the past two years and constrained by persistent restrictions on essential medical equipment and supplies. Since the beginning of January, MSF has been prevented by Israeli authorities from bringing international staff and additional supplies in Palestine, and by March 1, 2026, all MSF international staff will be forced to leave the territory. MSF’s medical programs are already facing shortages. Our medical teams are particularly concerned for their ability to continue to provide emergency trauma care and rehabilitation services to patients, as well as pediatric care, sexual and reproductive health services, care for non-communicable diseases and psychiatric conditions. In the longer term, MSF’s activities will be uncertain and potentially impossible to maintain under such restrictive conditions.
“MSF’s programs are critical lifelines,” says Lockyear. “Medical care and humanitarian assistance on this scale cannot easily be replaced. Amid ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, MSF will stay in Palestine for as long as possible, doing as much as we can. We call on Israeli authorities to enable humanitarian aid at scale and on the international community to ensure Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are not abandoned to their fate.”
MSF has been working in Palestine since 1988, providing medical and mental health care, as well as large-scale water and sanitation services more recently. In 2025, MSF supported one in five hospital beds in Gaza, assisted one in three deliveries, carried out 913,284 outpatient consultations, and distributed more than 700 million litres of water. In January 2026, MSF provided 83,579 outpatient consultations, treated 40,646 emergency cases and treated 5,981 patients for trauma-related conditions. In response to overwhelming needs, MSF had planned to expand our programs in 2026 with a budget of over 209 million dollars. That support is now shrouded in uncertainty.
The restrictive new registration requirements, used as a pretext to obstruct assistance, coincides with a coordinated global campaign of online attacks targeting MSF, promoted by the government of Israel.
“A delegitimization campaign, grounded in false and unsubstantiated allegations, is designed to discredit MSF, silence the organization’s voice and obstruct the provision of healthcare,” says Lockyear. “In a context where international journalists are barred and Palestinian journalists are regularly killed, further reducing NGO access risks removing yet another layer of witnesses to the ongoing violence and its enduring impacts on people.”
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