We Are Horrified By The Attacks Launched By Israel On The People Of Gaza, Shattering The Nearly Two-month-old Ceasefire

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.

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."

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