Gaza: Doctors Without Borders strongly condemns Israeli attack on Al-Mawasi shelter which killed two and injured six

21/02/2024

Palestine

The inside of a Doctors Without Borders shelter in Al Mawasi, Khan Younis, Gaza after Israeli shelling hit the building. Two people were killed and six others were injured. Palestine, 21 February 2024. © Mohammed Abed

Late on the evening of 20 February, Israeli forces conducted a military operation in Al-Mawasi, located on Gaza’s coastline, during which an Israeli tank fired on a house sheltering Doctors Without Borders colleagues and their families. The attack killed the daughter-in-law and wife of one of our colleagues, and injured six people, five of whom were women or children. Bullets were also fired at the clearly marked Doctors Without Borders building, hitting the front gate, the building’s exterior, and the interior of the ground floor.

Ambulance teams were delayed for more than two hours by the shelling in the area but were later able to reach the site and bring the wounded, some sustaining burn injuries, to the International Medical Corps Field hospital in Rafah.

“We are outraged and deeply saddened by these killings,” says Meinie Nicolai, Doctors Without Borders General Director, who is currently coordinating Doctors Without Borders medical activities in Gaza. “On the same day the United States chose to veto an immediate ceasefire, two daughters saw their mother and sister-in-law killed by an Israeli tank shell.”

These killings underscore the grim reality that nowhere in Gaza is safe, that promises of safe areas are empty and deconfliction mechanisms unreliable. The amount of force being used in densely populated urban environments is staggering, and targeting a building knowing it is full of humanitarian workers and their families is unconscionable.

Meinie Nicolai, General Director

At the time of the attack, 64 people were sheltering in the house. All parties to the war, including Israeli forces, are regularly informed of the whereabouts, and have acknowledged the presence, of Doctors Without Borders teams in specific locations. Israeli forces have been clearly informed of the precise location of this Doctors Without Borders shelter in Al-Mawasi. In addition to this, a two by three metre Doctors Without Borders flag was draped on the outside of the building. No evacuation orders were issued by the Israeli forces before the strike. Doctors Without Borders has since contacted Israeli authorities and is seeking further explanation.

Some of our colleagues and their family members who were living in the Doctors Without Borders shelter before the attack in Al-Mawasi had already survived the 8 January strike on another Doctors Without Borders shelter in Rafah, which killed the five-year-old daughter of a Doctors Without Borders staff member. This demonstrates, once again, that Israeli forces are not ensuring the safety of civilians in their military operations and shows a complete disregard for human life and lack of respect for the medical mission. This makes it almost impossible to sustain medical humanitarian activities in Gaza.

Outside of an of a Doctors Without Borders shelter in Al Mawasi, Khan Younis, Gaza after Israeli shelling hit the building. Two people were killed and six others were injured. Palestine, 21 February 2024. © Mohammed Abed

Doctors Without Borders teams are supporting our colleagues and their family members who survived yesterday’s attack, as well as the loved ones of those who were killed. Five Doctors Without Borders staff have been killed since the beginning of the war, in addition to numerous family members.

We reiterate our call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza. The violence against civilians must end now.

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