In the last seven months the healthcare system in Gaza has been systematically dismantled. According to OCHA, 24 hospitals in Gaza are now out of service, while 493 health workers have been killed. Each medical centre or humanitarian delivery system has been or is being destroyed, to be replaced by less effective, improvised options. There […]
On the night of May 26, the trauma stabilization point Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supports in Tal al Sultan, Gaza, recorded 180 wounded patients and 28 dead after Israeli airstrikes hit a camp sheltering displaced people in a designated safe zone. Most of the patients we treated had shrapnel wounds, fractures, traumatic injuries, and […]
Read More… from Rafah: Airstrike shows “complete disregard for the lives of civilians in Gaza”
Today’s decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to halt its offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza and to reopen the Rafah crossing is another confirmation of how catastrophic the situation is and of the desperate need for humanitarian aid to be scaled up immediately. We have been calling for an immediate […]
Read More… from MSF statement on ICJ decision on Rafah offensive
“We walk for hours to reach the health facilities. Sometimes we use the donkeys to transfer sick people to the hospital or to the clinic,” says Mahmud Mousa Abu Eram, a Palestinian man from Hebron, in the West Bank. “There hasn’t been transportation in this area for a long time, and even if there is […]
Read More… from West Bank: In the shadows of war; Increased violence and restrictions
The intensification of the onslaught by the Israeli forces in Rafah, Gaza, has forced Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to stop providing lifesaving care at Rafah Indonesian Field hospital on May 12. The 22 patients who remained in the hospital have been referred to other facilities, as we can no longer guarantee their safety. […]
Israeli forces have begun their offensive on Rafah and have seized control of the border, effectively cutting off lifesaving aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip. As thousands of Palestinians are forced to flee eastern Rafah following Israel’s recent evacuation orders, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls for protection of […]
“Yesterday (May 6), Israeli forces issued an evacuation order for several blocks in eastern Rafah, forcing around 100,000 people to quickly leave the area with nowhere safe to go. Last night there was intense bombing in the eastern areas of the city. The impact of an offensive on Rafah will have disastrous effects for over […]
Content warning: this article contains distressing content. “Mommy, I’m afraid.” Dr. Ruba, a mother and MSF doctor in Gaza, retells a conversation she had with her son in February 2024. “…I really just want to live. Mommy, I’m afraid that the siege will come near to us, that we will not be able to […]
An oxygen concentrator is a medical device that filters out the nitrogen in air, delivering purified oxygen to patients. For malnourished children with severe anaemia, injured people with severe blood loss and newborns with breathing difficulties, this device can be the difference between life and death. But despite being essential to our patients’ survival, we […]
Read More… from The impossible task of getting lifesaving supplies into Gaza
Gaza’s healthcare system has been devastated, with men, women and children at increasing risk of acute malnutrition and with their physical and mental health deteriorating rapidly, according to a report released today by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) entitled Gaza’s Silent Killings: The destruction of the healthcare system and the struggle for survival in […]