Israel’s all-out war on Gaza must end and its allies must stop enabling it

Doctors Without Borders teams were already treating the effects of Israel’s 17-year blockade, and recurrent attacks on people in Gaza, including treating patients for long-lasting injuries, mental health conditions, and severe burns, inflicted before 7 October. Since that date though, while needs have soared as a consequence of Israel pummelling the Strip, access to healthcare has been reduced to shreds.

Today, only 17 out of out of 36 hospitals are partially functional (Source OCHA). Warring parties have conducted hostilities near medical facilities, endangering patients, caretakers, and medical staff. Six Doctors Without Borders colleagues have also been killed. From October 2023, staff and patients from Doctors Without Borders have had to leave 14 different health structures, due to serious incidents and ongoing fighting. Each time a medical facility is evacuated, thousands of people lose access to lifesaving medical care. This will have consequences on people’s health, not just in the immediate term, but in the weeks and months to come.

The lack of access to healthcare is compounded by the dearth of enough humanitarian supplies in Gaza. Israeli authorities have routinely imposed unclear, unpredictable criteria for authorising the entry of supplies. Once supplies cross into the Gaza Strip, they often do not make it to their destination, due to an absence of safe and accessible roads, ongoing fighting, and looting of food and basic supply items.

As the availability of medical care has shrunk so too have the options for people to seek out desperately needed healthcare in Gaza. Repeated evacuation orders have displaced 90 per cent of people into so-called safer zones which Israel has nonetheless bombed over and over again. People are now urged to stay within a tiny patch of 41 square kilometre (Source OCHA), with limited shelter, food and water. There is an increased risk of disease due to overcrowding. Out of the two million people in the Gaza Strip, at least 12,000 people desperately need to be medically evacuated (Source WHO).

The medical evacuation of those in need, and the right of Palestinians simply seeking safety for themselves and their families to leave the Strip, must immediately be facilitated, without prejudice to their right of return. While the past 12 months have been marked by destructive actions, they have also been defined by shameful inaction.

Time and again, political allegiances have been put before human life.  While Israel´s allies publicly speak on the importance of a ceasefire and need to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza, they continue to provide arms to Israel. The United States in particular, while recently espousing calls for ceasefire, has frequently worked to obfuscate, block, and undermine ceasefire efforts through its role in the United Nations Security Council.

Meanwhile, the war in Gaza is fuelling regional tensions, which are reaching disastrous heights. Israeli attacks have surged in the West Bank, and now in Lebanon, with already devastating consequences on civilians.

Doctors Without Borders' calls:

• A sustained ceasefire must immediately be implemented.
• The mass killing of civilians must stop immediately.
• The destruction of the healthcare system and civilian infrastructure must halt.
• The blockade on Gaza must end.
• Israel must open vital land borders, including the Rafah crossing, to ensure massive scaled up humanitarian and medical aid can reach those in need as a matter of urgency.
• Israel must ensure medical evacuation for those in need of specialised medical care, including their caregivers, and allow those who wish to seek safety abroad can do so, while ensuring that all are guaranteed safe, voluntary, and dignified return to Gaza.
• The United Nations Security Council must take action to ensure a ceasefire as the guarantor of international peace and security and end its complacency with the ongoing destruction of the Gaza Strip.