Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has ceased its operations in Gaza City. This difficult decision comes amid escalating dangers to its personnel due to the ongoing Israeli military ground offensive, highlighting the immense pressure on the region’s healthcare system.
The international organization, crucial for providing vital medical services including malnutrition treatment and urgent trauma care, confirmed on Friday that it could no longer operate safely in Gaza City. Israeli tanks and military strikes have reportedly advanced to within half a mile of their clinics.
“We were left with no alternative but to halt our activities, as Israeli forces now encircle our clinics,” stated Jacob Granger, MSF’s emergency medical coordinator in Gaza. He emphasized that this was a last resort, given the overwhelming humanitarian needs in Gaza City. In the past week alone, their clinic managed over 3,600 consultations and treated more than 1,600 individuals for malnutrition – a critical concern in an area a U.N.-backed panel recently declared to be suffering from famine. Israel has challenged these findings and their methodology.
This announcement coincided with a United Nations report revealing that four hospitals in northern Gaza have become unusable over the last month. One of these facilities sustained severe damage from an airstrike on the very first day of Israel’s ground offensive. The Israeli military has not yet commented on these reports.
Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, informed reporters in Geneva on Friday that numerous other hospitals in Gaza are at risk of suspending operations in the coming days. This is primarily due to acute shortages of essential supplies, including blood and blood bags.
A chronic lack of fuel for hospital generators has been another persistent challenge throughout the conflict, which erupted following a Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023. Gaza’s health ministry warned last week that unreliable supply lines could further cripple access to healthcare.
Gaza’s fragile medical system has faced unprecedented devastation since Israel initiated its full-scale ground offensive on Gaza City on September 16. Israel maintains that Gaza City is one of the last remaining Hamas strongholds.
Prior to the offensive, Israel had issued an evacuation order for the city. Last week, the military reported that approximately 640,000 of the nearly one million residents had already fled to the southern parts of the territory.
However, Mr. Granger pointed out that many of the most vulnerable, such as “infants in neonatal care, those with severe injuries and life-threatening illnesses,” are simply unable to relocate.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, described the worsening conditions in Gaza City as “disturbing and alarming.”
“Attacks on and around health facilities are making it impossible to deliver lifesaving care,” he posted on social media on Friday. He urged Israel to “ensure safe access and protection for health workers, patients, and medical aid.”
Among the hospitals forced to close last month was the Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital, which the United Nations stated was struck by a military operation on September 16 while 80 patients were inside. The agency noted that no fatalities resulted from the Al-Rantisi strike, but it did damage rooftop water tanks, communication systems, and medical equipment. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding this incident.
Israel has asserted that Hamas utilizes hospitals for military purposes, a claim Hamas denies. Under international laws of conflict, hospitals are designated as protected sites that should not be attacked, except under very rare and specific circumstances.
These closures mean only 14 hospitals are now functioning across all of Gaza, according to the United Nations. This is where 2.2 million people have endured almost two years of relentless war, which local health officials report has claimed over 65,000 lives and leveled vast areas of the territory. The Gaza health ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its tally, reported 77 fatalities in the last 24 hours alone.
Out of the remaining 14 hospitals in Gaza, eight are located in Gaza City, while the other six are spread across the central and southern parts of the enclave, specifically in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis.
The World Health Organization has noted that hospitals in Gaza City are severely overburdened with patients injured in military strikes, and those in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis are inundated with people displaced from Gaza City.
Dr. Khalil al-Daqran, spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah, reported on Saturday that the influx of people from Gaza City has left his hospital “completely full of patients and the wounded.”
He described the conditions at the facility as “catastrophic,” with patients being treated in makeshift tents in the hospital courtyard and many forced to lie on the floor. He expressed grave concerns about the potential spread of diseases, given that so many residents in Deir al Balah are living “in tents surrounded by sewage, garbage, rodents and insects.”
Meanwhile, in Gaza City, Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, confirmed on Saturday that his facility continues to operate. He noted approximately 200 wounded and sick patients are currently being treated there, with more arriving daily as Israel’s offensive persists.
Dr. Abu Salmiya added that the ongoing military operations have severely hampered efforts to restock supplies at Al-Shifa, which was Gaza’s primary medical center before the war. He conveyed that both staff and patients are anxious about a potential Israeli military order to evacuate, a command that has been issued at least twice previously during the conflict.