Claire Magone, General Director France, Medecins Sans
Frontieres/Doctors Without Border.
“We are
horrified by the attacks launched by Israel today on the
people of Gaza, shattering the nearly two-month-old
ceasefire. Out of the hundreds killed, according to the
Ministry of Health, MSF received 75 dead on arrival and
scores of wounded in just three of the facilities we
support.
Our staff were completely taken by surprise
and found themselves once again having to deal with influxes
of mass casualties, many of whom were children.
In
line with the tactics that the Israeli authorities have
applied since October 2023, they have once again chosen to
collectively punish the people of Gaza – with the explicit
approval of their closest ally, the United States –
striking with an intensity not seen since the early stages
of the war. For over 15 months, before the ceasefire, people
in Gaza were indiscriminately killed, mutilated, wounded,
and displaced.
Israeli forces undertaking
these latest ruthless attacks and evacuation orders make us
fear that a new phase of military operations in Gaza is
about to begin. Palestinians in Gaza will simply not be able
to withstand this, neither physically nor mentally. Their
hopes of recovering at least part of their previous lives
are being shattered.
Since the ceasefire
came into effect on 19 January, people have been struggling
to restore the basics of their day to day lives after a
drawn out, devastating military campaign, which has
annihilated the very fabric of society in Gaza. Israel has
once again cut access to humanitarian aid and basic
goods.
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
MSF calls for the ceasefire to be immediately
restored and for Israel to not restart its campaign of
destruction and the nightmarish, massive bombing on the
people of Gaza. MSF also calls for the blockade to be
lifted, and for people to regain unrestricted access to
basic supplies and aid. Injured people and patients
requiring urgent medical care should be allowed to seek care
outside of Gaza, provided their right to a safe and
dignified return is granted.”
Claire Nicolet, MSF
head of emergencies, currently in Gaza
“This night
at 2 a.m. we have been awoken by the sounds of bombing,
heavy bombing. It was absolutely terrifying for 20 minutes
with bombs all over the place and when we started looking at
what is the situation for the whole Gaza Strip, we
understood that the massive attack with airstrike, heavy
artillery, quadcopters was for the whole Gaza Strip. After
these 20 minutes we continued to hear all night long some
heavy bombing, some airstrikes, some artillery in Rafah, in
Khan Younis, in almost all parts of Gaza.
We heard as
well as soon as it started the sounds of ambulances because
obviously there was a huge number of patients, of wounded,
of dead. So lots of patients arrived to the different
hospitals.
Hospitals were very overwhelmed and also at
the moment it’s quite difficult because it means that the
patient cannot really move, they don’t know if it’s safe and
even our teams, we don’t know if we can move around the Gaza
Strip because as it was an ongoing truce there was no more
notification system or any system to be sure that we will be
safe by moving. Now it means as well that the MSF teams in
the north and the team in the south are again split. It
means as well the population cannot move freely from one
place to another and in reality, there is very poor access
to health care, very poor access to shelter as everything is
destroyed.
This is the current situation we are facing
and unfortunately there is a lot of needs but also a lot of
uncertainty on what’s next.
The population here is
completely afraid. Of course, they see this is a full
restart of the fighting and they are very scared of what’s
next.”
