Palestinian Territories

Attacks on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army during three weeks in December 2008 and January 2009 made medical action extremely difficult. The vulnerability of civilians sparked humanitarian outrage and widespread criticism.

More than two weeks after the ceasefires, MSF medical teams in the Gaza Strip have expanded surgical, post-operative, and psychological care, particularly for people wounded during the three-week Israeli military operation last month.

Bilal, 14, is being helped by his father to drink a can of cola. He is feeling better, about an hour after he was operated on by a surgical team in an MSF field hospital in Gaza City.

While many wounded people still require medical care, particularly surgical procedures or post-operative care, the population in the Gaza Strip is also in need of social and psychological assistance.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been equipped for more than three years with inflatable tents enabling rapidly and adaptable set-ups of operating suites, intensive care units, and hospital beds. Injured patients in Gaza City who require specialized or follow-up surgical procedures are admitted to such a temporary hospital. Dr. Mego Terzian, MSF deputy coordinator for emergency programs explains more.

MSF medical teams began carrying out specialized surgical procedures today in inflatable structures put up by MSF late last week in Gaza City. The two hospital tents include operating theaters and a 12-bed, post-surgery recovery and post-operative care unit.

Medical activities carried out by MSF inside the Gaza Strip have increased over the last 48 hours, in the wake of the Israeli and Hamas ceasefires.

An MSF surgical team and other personnel entered the Gaza Strip today to provide essential surgical services to people seriously wounded during the last three weeks of intense fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas.

On Friday, January 16, MSF held press conferences in Jerusalem and Paris to decry the dire humanitarian situation currently affecting civilians trapped in Gaza, and demanding that all parties to the conflict respect medical teams attempting to reach these people. Following are excerpts from the press conferences.

"The army is now about two kilometers away in Tal El-Hawa, where there are clashes and a massive presence of tanks. Many families are trapped there and a lot of people are wounded. Again and again there is this massive problem of access."

Jerusalem/Gaza/Paris, January 14, 2009 — Despite statements by Israeli authorities, the worsening security situation in the Gaza Strip is severely limiting international humanitarian assistance in support of Palestinian emergency medical services, which are trying to cope with thousands of wounded patients. MSF calls on the parties to the conflict to allow medical personnel to enter and operate safely in the Gaza Strip to reach trapped civilians.

The MSF medical team in Gaza is carrying out its work, although team members wish they could provide more aid. Still, they are treating wounded patients who cannot reach a hospital and supplying health workers with medical equipment and medications.

MSF faces major problems in obtaining access to the wounded. The security conditions still prevent medical teams and humanitarian aid workers from providing aid to a population that has nowhere to flee and finds itself trapped.

Jessica Pourraz, MSF field coordinator in Gaza, observes that the situation in the field remains unchanged. Given the security conditions, medical teams and humanitarian aid workers are still unable to deliver aid to a population that has nowhere to flee.

New York, January 7, 2009 — The military offensive in the Gaza Strip is affecting civilians indiscriminately, while medical teams continue to face serious obstacles to providing assistance. The international community must not be content with a limited truce, which is largely inadequate for providing lifesaving assistance.

More than one week after air strikes began on the Gaza Strip, and following the beginning of a land incursion by Israeli forces, surgical services in Gaza are overwhelmed and are in need of surgeons specialized in vascular surgery in order to deal with the increasing number of wounded people.

Three expatriate staff members from MSF were able to join local MSF teams in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, December 31, 2008. They describe the tension and difficulties working in Gaza, with air strikes and bombings making it very difficult for patients and healthcare personnel to move around.

The violent conflict in the Gaza Strip has been extremely intense for the last four days, and hospitals have been struggling to meet the urgent needs of large numbers of wounded people. A Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) doctor* in Gaza spoke on December 30 about the situation there.

Four days after air attacks against the Gaza Strip began hospitals are already overwhelmed by an influx of wounded patients. Two MSF teams have begun treating them and an initial MSF truckload of medical supplies and drugs entered the Gaza Strip today.

Since Saturday, December 27, aerial attacks on the Gaza Strip are estimated to have killed 300 people and wounded over one thousand more, including civilians. In both Kemal Edwan and Shifa Hospitals, medical personnel are overloaded by the influx of wounded and a lack space to deal with all the patients.

Paris/Jerusalem, October 7, 2008—MSF confirms that it has never transmitted political information—officially or unofficially—regarding Hamas or any other Palestinian political group to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Paris/Jerusalem, April 24, 2008—Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) medical activities in the Gaza Strip are being seriously hindered by lack of fuel. Diesel and gasoline have been unavailable on the market for the past week. MSF teams have had to limit their visits to the most severely ill patients, who make up only one fifth of the patient population of MSF post-surgical care programs. This week, only half of patients have been able to travel to MSF health facilities. There is a waiting list of 90 persons who have not yet received any health care.

The situation in the Gaza Strip has been calmer since last week's fighting between Palestinian armed groups and Israeli forces. At the height of the violence, MSF managed to make donations to health facilities and continued to assess medical needs. Teams are prepared to treat new patients in the coming days.

The MSF team has reopened its clinic in Gaza City in order to treat wounded people and to support hospitals overloaded by a large influx of patients due to the Israeli incursion in the north of Gaza strip. MSF has also made donations of medical items and essential drugs to some hospitals in the area.

Many people have been wounded and killed in exchanges of gunfire on the streets of Gaza. Others have been subject to reprisals for their political affiliations, including being shot in the legs, as MSF's Pierre Salignon explains following a recent visit to the Palestinian Territories.

Jerusalem/Paris, May 18, 2007 — On May 17, Mr. Mossaab Bashir, a member of the staff of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the Gaza Strip, was charged by an Israeli court with "contact with a foreign agent" and "conspiracy to commit a crime." Mr. Bashir was arrested on April 19, 2007 in Jerusalem after attending an MSF work meeting. The charges handed down against Mr. Bashir are in no way related to either MSF or to its activities.

Jerusalem-Barcelona, Septemeber 21, 2006 — The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is concerned about the deteriorating access to medical treatment for the population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in particular in the Hebron district in the West Bank.

At least 184 Palestinians —including 42 children— have died, and 650 have been wounded since the beginning of operation "Summer Rain" on June 28, an operation which followed the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier. Around half of the victims were civilians. During the attacks, twelve houses were seriously damaged and 3,400 Palestinians were forced to look for shelter because of the bombings and resulting projectiles.

The appalling situation that has been prevailing in the Palestinian Territories for months now —primarily in Gaza— has not changed. Below is an update on the human losses, material damage, the Palestinian health system, water and electricity supply problems, and the MSF response.

Dr. Pierre-Pascal Vandini recently returned from the Gaza Strip, where access to health care has deteriorated for people since the European Union and the United States suspended their financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority. He was interviewed in mid-May 2006 about how Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is reevaluating its activities in the Palestinian Occupied Territories in light of the medical, social, and economic impacts of recent events on the ground.

Jerusalem, April 13, 2006 – Following the success of Hamas in the January legislative elections, Canada and the United States, followed by the European Union, decided to suspend their financial aid to the Palestinian Authority. Nonetheless, a promise was made to continue to help the population meet their basic needs by proposing to reallocate part of these funds to the United Nations and other international relief bodies so that they can offset the human and social consequences of this sanction. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) considers this proposal unacceptable.

Gaza Strip, October 12, 2004 - The independent humanitarian medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continued to call on Israeli authorities today to allow the group access to its patients in the Gaza Strip. Despite multiple daily requests, MSF's teams have been denied the ability to reach the families in their care since September 28, 2004 when Israeli Defense Forces began "Operation Days of Penitence" which has divided Gaza into three parts.

New York/Gaza City, May 21, 2004 - More than 200 families - 1,400 people - have been made homeless and are seeking refuge in schools, mosques and the sports stadium in Rafah, Gaza Strip, according to the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Since mid-May the Israeli army has deliberately destroyed several hundred civilian homes and made thousands of people homeless. As of Friday May 14, some 20 homes had been razed to the ground. By the end of the weekend the number increased to 100. The incursion has left dozens of civilians dead or injured. People often don't have time to flee their homes and those who manage to escape have been fired on. Aid organizations have been urged to intervene because people still in the area fear being buried alive.

Clinical psychologist Michael Michalik worked for MSF in the Gaza Strip for six months in late 2003 and early 2004. He is part of a mobile team that works with families most affected by the continuing violence.

In late August, Peter Orr returned from the Gaza Strip, where he served as field coordinator for MSF's medical/psychological program. The deteriorating political situation has been disastrous for civilians living in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere in the Palestinian territories.

On the escalating violence in Palestine.