Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
strongly condemns Israel’s strike on Nasser Hospital in
Khan Younis, southern Gaza—the largest remaining
functioning hospital in the Gaza Strip, where MSF teams
work. On 23 March, Israeli forces targeted the hospital’s
inpatient surgical department, killing two people, according
to the Ministry of Health. MSF teams confirmed there were
several people injured, one of which was admitted to our
trauma unit, and that severe damage was done to the
building. This attack, shows a total disregard for the
protection of medical facilities, endangered patients and
medical staff and the very provision of healthcare. As
Israeli forces escalate their operations in Gaza once again,
MSF calls for the respect and protection of healthcare
facilities, patients and medical staff in Gaza, where the
health system has been all but destroyed.
“Strikes
such as these are horrific for staff and patients” says
Claire Nicolet, MSF head of emergencies in Gaza. “We
cannot go back to repeated attacks on health care facilities
when the health system in Gaza is already hanging by a
thread, and no supplies have entered in
weeks.”
While Gaza’s healthcare system has
collapsed, and the medical needs of people continue to
skyrocket, medical workers are yet again forced to fear for
their lives while providing care. At Nasser hospital, two
MSF colleagues, who were working in different hospital
departments, described panic among patients at the time of
the attack.
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” The distance between us and
the explosion was so close that we could’ve been hit
too,” explains an MSF nurse who works in another ward in
Nasser hospital and was close by when the strike happened.
“Our colleagues, medical staff, patients and their
caretakers were all terrified.”
During Israel’s
war on Gaza, MSF has witnessed relentless attacks on health
facilities, a complete disregard for patients, medical
workers and International Humanitarian Law (IHL), resulting
in the systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system. Not
a single hospital in the Gaza Strip is currently fully
functional, and only 21 out of the enclave’s 36 hospitals
are partially functioning, according to the World Health
Organization (WHO).
As one of the last main hospitals
in southern Gaza, Nasser hospital is providing care for
people with severe burns and trauma injuries, newborns, and
pregnant women.
Since returning in mid-May 2024, MSF
teams have been supporting the emergency, pediatric, and
maternity departments at Nasser hospital, as well as running
a burn and trauma unit. In February 2024, MSF teams were
forced to flee after the hospital was shelled by Israeli
forces.
Furthermore, Nasser Hospital as
other health facilities in Gaza is facing several challenges
of supplies, including hygiene items, medication and
surgical items, while Israeli authorities continue their
siege on the Strip for over 20 days. Due to the numerous
influxes of patients from recent bombings, MSF stocks are
decreasing faster than expected, and the blockade is making
it impossible for our teams to restock vital items such as
antibiotics, painkillers and
anesthetics.
In a separate incident on
May 24, MSF teams in Al-Mawasi primary health care clinic
were forced to close the emergency room, evacuate the
facility and suspend activities for the day due to close-by
shootings and shelling. Healthcare facilities, patients and
medical staff must be protected.
MSF calls once again
for the immediate restoration of the ceasefire and for the
resumption of the entry of essential aid and basic supplies,
which people in Gaza desperately
need.
