Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with US President Donald Trump today, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling on all parties for a sustained ceasefire and for Israel to fully lift its siege on Gaza, abandon the ineffective Israeli-US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) scheme to distribute aid, and enable humanitarian actors to freely provide lifesaving assistance to Palestinians across the Strip.
After 21 months of all-out war, Palestinians in Gaza are being killed not just by bombs, but due to hunger, thirst, and the systematic destruction of the health care system. MSF is witnessing a genocide in Gaza, as Israeli forces are responsible for mass killings, the destruction of vital civilian infrastructure, and blockades choking off access to food, water, medicines, and other essential humanitarian supplies. Israel is systematically destroying the conditions necessary for Palestinian life. As the leading provider of military and financial support to Israel, the US has obligations to prevent genocide and to assess if the conduct of the war is consistent with international and US laws designed to protect civilians.
MSF and other medical providers are running out of supplies. Israel continues to impose a near-total siege, obstruct the delivery of independent aid, and exert pressure on humanitarian actors. The establishment of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-US proxy, militarizes aid delivery and is actively sowing chaos and deepening people’s suffering. In less than four weeks, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed and almost 4,000 injured while attempting to access or distribute aid. Every day, MSF treats people who have been wounded while desperately trying to access food.
Humanitarian assistance in conflict settings must be delivered in an independent, neutral, and impartial way that is safe and effective. The GHF does not meet these standards and is, instead, a political tool masquerading as a humanitarian solution. The principled humanitarian system that was previously in place in Gaza must be restored.
MSF currently operates in or provides support to three hospitals in Gaza (Al-Aqsa, Nasser, and Al-Helou), two field hospitals, four primary health care centers, and two clinics. Teams are offering surgical support, wound care, physiotherapy, maternity and pediatric care, primary health care, vaccination, and mental health services, as well as carrying out water distribution.
“When President Trump meets with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he must do more than call for an end to the violence. The US must demand an end to the systematic atrocities. Enough of the indiscriminate killing. Enough of the forced starvation. Enough of this brutal and dehumanizing siege. Aid must be allowed to enter the Strip at scale to meet the immense humanitarian, medical, and psychological needs caused by relentless violence against civilians.
“I saw unspeakable suffering related to the genocide firsthand while I was treating patients in a field hospital in Gaza earlier this year.
"I saw countless patients—mostly women and children—come in with traumatic injuries from airstrikes. I saw my colleagues make heart-wrenching decisions about who to save with their limited surgical supplies, medications, and equipment. Meanwhile, the supplies we needed were left sitting in trucks on the other side of the border, blocked by Israeli forces. And the cruelty didn’t stop there; I saw children whose burns wouldn’t heal because they were malnourished and didn’t have enough food to get well. I saw children who were crying not because they had been maimed in the violence but because they were unbearably hungry.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution system must be dismantled
Read more“In recent months, minuscule amounts of food and aid have been distributed in Gaza, including through the Israeli- and US-backed GHF. But forcing people to access extremely limited assistance only at four militarized locations has been disastrous and deadly. It has forced Palestinians to choose between starvation or fighting for the last grain of rice. No one is immune to the consequences of this malicious system. Just last week, one of our own MSF colleagues, Abdullah Hammad, was killed by Israeli forces while waiting for food aid.
“This Israeli-US aid scheme weaponizes food, medicines, and other essential supplies. It is not a humanitarian response but, instead, a tool of coercion and control to advance military objectives. Even if a ceasefire is achieved, people will continue to be killed unless this aid system is dismantled immediately. It’s not enough for people to be safe from bombs if they’re expected to risk their lives to feed their families.
"After enduring 21 months of war and unimaginable horrors, Palestinians are now entirely reliant on humanitarian assistance. The Israeli siege must be fully lifted, the GHF must be dismantled, and principled humanitarian actors must be allowed to bring aid in at scale and provide it freely and with dignity. As long as the US continues to support Israel’s actions, it will remain complicit in Palestinians’ bloodshed and suffering.”
