Support MSF's regional response to the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza
After over a year of war, MSF teams continue to provide vital medical humanitarian care in Gaza, despite immense challenges.
In Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on Earth, 2.2 million people were already living through a chronic crisis before what has now become a humanitarian catastrophe.
As of November 2024, over 43,000 people have been killed and 101,000 have been wounded according to local health authorities. In May 2024, a further 10,000 people were estimated to be buried under rubble. Among the reported deaths, more than 13,000 are children.
Over 1.9 million people are estimated to be forcibly displaced and living in appalling conditions that are unsafe and unhealthy – without adequate shelter, food, water or medical care. This number represents nearly 90 percent of Gaza's population.
Donate to the Gaza Emergency Regional Fund
Help provide vital medical care to those who need it most.
Hundreds of casualties arrive each day to the hospital's emergency rooms. Our Palestinian and international staff are providing surgical support and wound care, including to patients with traumatic injuries and severe burns, physiotherapy, outpatients' consultations, and mental health services.
Bringing supplies into Gaza has been extremely difficult due to administrative barriers, movement restrictions, and a large backlog of trucks at the border.
Throughout the conflict in Gaza, there have been serious incidents of attacks on hospitals, violence against medical personnel and obstructions to healthcare.
Shockingly, more than 1,042 healthcare workers have been killed between 7 October 2023 and 28 October 2024 - this includes eight of our own staff.
MSF is horrified by these killings, and condemns them in the strongest terms.
Key Information:
The health system is continuously under attack in Gaza. Hospitals and ambulances are under attack, patients and medical staff are being injured and killed. The access to the wounded and sick is impeded by insecurity, lack of fuel and cell phone connectivity.
Most of Gaza’s hospitals are out of service as the electrical power and water have been cut off due to lack of fuel and also to the damage healthcare facilities sustained in multiple attacks. While some hospitals are closed, the others function with very limited resources, often unable to admit new patients due to lack or absence of medical supplies and medication, fuel, food and water. Medical staff working in Gaza are utterly exhausted and do what they can in impossible conditions.
Throughout the war in Gaza, MSF teams have witnessed attacks on health facilities in the Gaza Strip, including raids on hospitals, sieges and the destruction of medical infrastructure and equipment. On several occasions, our teams have also witnessed the detention of medical staff and patients. The healthcare system in Gaza has practically collapsed, while, people’s medical needs are skyrocketing.
Medical staff should not have to choose between saving their own lives and those of their patients.
Staff and patients from MSF have had to leave 14 different health structures and have endured 26 violent incidents (3.7 per month on average), which includes airstrikes damaging hospitals, tanks being fired at agreed deconflicted shelters, ground offensives into medical centres, and convoys fired upon. These attacks show the blatant disregard of medical humanitarian action and failure of deconfliction measures in a war fought with no rules.
Contrary to the repeated public communications of the Israeli authorities, humanitarian aid has been denied or severely impeded since the beginning of the war, making it near impossible to provide even basic healthcare. This is not a logistics problem; it is a political problem.
Instrumentalising aid to falsely create an illusion of safety and minimal service provision in Gaza, in order to maintain the pretence of Israel’s adherence to International Humanitarian Law, is pure propaganda and is only endangering civilians further. Aid, when it is not completely blocked, comes in dribs and drabs, and can in no way adequately meet the immense needs of people in Gaza.
Water supply is critical throughout Gaza. Due to a lack of fuel, desalination plants are operating at a reduced level. There is more imported food available in some markets, where it gets through in private company trucks, but it is unaffordable for most Gazans as prices of basic commodities have skyrocketed.
Northern Gaza remains isolated, receiving negligible amounts of humanitarian aid in contrast to the actual needs. OCHA said in June that the Israeli authorities had facilitated only 49% of the planned humanitarian assistance missions to northern Gaza. The rest were impeded, denied access, or cancelled due to logistical, operational or security reasons.
MSF visits to northern Gaza have illustrated the absence of essential supplies, clear and safe supply routes, and the devastation of numerous hospitals. The recent MSF report denounces Gaza’s “silent killings” from preventable diseases and lack of access to medical care
However, it’s important to note that some medical staff in hospitals like Indonesian hospital and Al Awda hospital continue working to rebuild, refurbish and treat patients. Distribution of aid within the strip from the North to the South and from the South to the North is near impossible.
MSF staff have been working at hospitals and clinics through the conflict, providing essential medical aid that includes:
• Surgical care
• Wound and burn care
• Maternity care
• Physiotherapy
• Mental health support
• Vaccinations
• Outpatient consultations
Since October 2023, we have held more than 471,000 outpatient consultations and admitted 76,000 people to our emergency rooms.
In the almost one year of conflict between 7 October 2023 and the end of September 2024, MSF teams in Gaza treated over 27,500 people for physical violence, 34,000 for diarrhoea, and carried out more than 7,500 surgical interventions.
Many hospitals that MSF supports have been hit by airstrikes or faced incursions by ground forces. Meanwhile, our staff and our patients have been subjected to dangerous evacuation orders that have put lives and the continuity of care at risk.
The situation has been extremely volatile. This means that our operations have had to adapt continually and move frequently.
Hospitals and clinics that we currently support or have previously supported include:
• Southern Gaza: Nasser Hospital plus the Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis and Al-Attar healthcare centres and the Al-Quarara clinic
(Previously European Gaza Hospital, Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital, Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital and Martyrs and Beni Suhaila clinics)
• Middle Area: Al-Aqsa Hospital and two field hospitals, plus the Al-Martyrs and Al-Hekker healthcare centres
• Northern Gaza: MSF Gaza City clinic
(Previously Al-Shifa Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital )
In the first year of the conflict, MSF delivered 636 tons of logistics and medical equipment (around 130 trucks). This includes medicines, wound dressings, surgical kits, generators and two field hospitals.
However, border restrictions and the limited options for crossing into Gaza have made our supply operations extremely difficult. Our team in Egypt are ready and waiting to send more medical supplies as soon as they can do so safely.
Access to safe, clean drinking water is particularly difficult in Gaza, exacerbating living conditions, hygiene and health issues.
MSF is currently distributing more than 800,000 litres of water per day through a desalination process at more than 64 water points across Al Mawasi, Khan Younis, Rafah, and Deir El Balah.
MSF’s activities in the West Bank have been affected by the escalation of violence and movement restrictions that have limited people’s access to essential services, including healthcare. The impact on our patients' mental health has been a particular concern.
We have responded by expanding our work to reach communities directly, help local emergency services and support healthcare centres and clinics.
This includes:
• Supporting four healthcare centres and running 15 mobile clinics in Hebron, as well as training healthcare staff at Al Moktaseb, Halhoul, Dura, and Yatta hospitals.
• Providing medical supplies to community focal points and emergency centres in Beit Omar, Al Rshaydeh and Um El Khair.
• Providing relief items and food parcels to Gazans displaced within the West Bank.
• Increasing capacity at hospitals including Halhoul, Thabet Thabet, Moktaseb, Jenin, and Khalil Suleiman.
• In Nablus, MSF provides psychological therapy and sexual and gender-based violence services. We also train first responders from the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
• In Jenin and Tulkarem, we train paramedics and volunteers to respond to medical emergencies inside the nearby refugee camps when ambulances are unable to reach patients due to violent incursions.
The conditions in Gaza are only getting worse: more people are injured and dying every day, while medical care is becoming less and less available. Contributions towards the Gaza Emergency Regional Fund will support MSF’s emergency response to this severe humanitarian crisis. MSF’s independence — and your support — will be crucial to our ability to launch lifesaving programs assisting vulnerable people caught in the Gaza emergency.
Latest MSF Updates from Gaza and West Bank:
Donate now to our Gaza and West Bank Regional Fund
Since 7 October 2023, more than 1.9 million people have had to flee their homes, with conditions in Gaza constantly deteriorating.
Donations to the Gaza Emergency Regional Fund will fund MSF’s emergency medical response to this horrific humanitarian crisis.