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Palestinian Territories

You are viewing all content tagged Palestinian Territories.  You can also read an overview of MSF's work in Palestinian Territories.

March 11, 2009 | Alert Article

Gaza: A Devastating Disregard for Civilians

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.

February 6, 2009

Gaza: MSF Finds Patients at Risk for Re-infection

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.

January 30, 2009

The Story of Bilal, January 27, Gaza City

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.

January 30, 2009

Gaza: MSF Helping To Treat Physical and Psychological Scars

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.

January 29, 2009

Inflatable Tents Open Door to Faster, Lower-Cost Surgical Response

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.

January 26, 2009

MSF Expands Surgical Activities in Gaza City

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.

January 20, 2009

Gaza Medical Activities Increasing in Wake of Ceasefire

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.

January 17, 2009

MSF Medical Team Enters Gaza to Reinforce Aid Operations; Surgical Team Was Delayed 10 Days Waiting for Israeli Authorization

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.

January 16, 2009 | Press Release

"This Bloodshed of Civilians Must End:" Excerpts From MSF's Gaza Press Conferences

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.

January 15, 2009

"There Is No Safe Place in Gaza"

"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."

January 14, 2009 | Press Release

Gaza: Medical Personnel Unable to Enter

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.

January 14, 2009

Trying to Provide Medical Care in Gaza City, in Spite of Everything

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.

January 10, 2009

Gaza: Civilians Trapped with Nowhere to Flee

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.

January 9, 2009

Gaza: “The Daily Pause in Bombing Has Not Changed Anything”

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.

January 7, 2009 | Press Release

Temporary Halt to Gaza Bombing a Paltry Response as Extreme Violence Victimizes Civilians

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.

January 4, 2009

Gaza: Medical Services Overwhelmed

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.

January 2, 2009

Gaza: Bombings Keep Patients at Home, MSF Takes Clinics to Neighborhoods

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.

December 31, 2008

On the Ground in Gaza: "The situation was completely chaotic"

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.

December 30, 2008

Gaza: First Wounded Patients Receive Treatment

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.

December 29, 2008

Gaza: Hospitals Overburdened by Influx of Wounded

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.

October 8, 2008 | Press Release

Doctors Without Borders Protests Comments by Bernard Kouchner in Jerusalem

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.

April 24, 2008 | Press Release

Fuel Crisis in Gaza: MSF Is Forced To Scale Back Its Medical Activities

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.

March 10, 2008

Palestinian Territories: After Violence, MSF Anticipates More Patients

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.

March 3, 2008

Palestinian Territories: MSF Reopens Gaza City Clinic to Treat Wounded

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.

January 22, 2008

Blockade of the Gaza Strip

The tightened blockade in recent days has sharply restricted resupplying activities in the Gaza Strip. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are continuing aid activities on site, but are concerned about shortages of medicine, problems with hospital services and limited access to medical care.

June 26, 2007

Palestinian Territories: "Patients have been killed in their hospital beds"

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.

May 18, 2007 | Press Release

MSF Reacts to Charges Issued Against Palestinian Staff Member

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.

September 21, 2006 | Press Release

Suspension of Aid Has Led to a Serious Deterioration in Access to Health Care for Palestinians

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.

August 10, 2006

MSF Responds to "Summer Rain" Operation in Palestinian Territories

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.

July 26, 2006

Palestinian Territories: Update From Gaza

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.

June 8, 2006

Palestinian Territories: The Situation Could Quickly Turn Critical

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.

April 13, 2006 | Press Release

Palestinian Territories: MSF Refuses to be a "Social Palliative" of EU & US Policies

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.

October 12, 2004 | Press Release

MSF Calls for Access to Patients in the Gaza Strip

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.

May 21, 2004 | Press Release

Hundreds Left Homeless, Dozens Dead After Israeli Army's Attack in Rafah

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.

November 30, 2003 | Voice from the Field

Michael Michalik
"It will take time for the healing to begin" - A psychologist's diary treating mental trauma in Gaza

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.

October 10, 2003 | Voice from the Field

Q & A with Field Coordinator Peter Orr

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.

September 3, 2002 | Press Release

The Palestinian Chronicles;: Civilians Trapped by War

July 10, 2002 | Special Report

Palestinian Chronicles: Trapped by War

April 9, 2002 | Open Letters

Open Letter to U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell

On the escalating violence in Palestine.