In May, after nearly three months of total blockade, Israeli authorities allowed a trickle of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. But this tiny and inadequate amount of support is a smokescreen to make it appear that the siege is over.
While the war and blockade continue to wreak havoc on Palestinians’ health and leave them in desperate need of medical care and food, water, and other necessities, medical facilities in Gaza are being damaged or forced out of service amid increasing Israeli military operations, intensified airstrikes, and widespread evacuation orders. Coupled with the annihilation of Gaza’s health care system, these actions underpin a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
“The Israeli authorities’ decision to allow a ridiculously inadequate amount of aid into Gaza after months of siege signals their intention to avoid the accusation of starving people in Gaza, while in fact keeping them barely surviving,” said Pascale Coissard, an emergency coordinator with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Khan Younis. “This plan is a way to instrumentalize aid, making it a tool to further Israeli forces’ military objectives.”
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed and hundreds have been injured by Israeli attacks while seeking humanitarian aid since late May. On June 1, patients treated by MSF said they were shot at by Israeli forces as they waited for food near newly created aid distribution centers.
Ongoing bombings and evacuation orders fuel displacement
As part of the expansion of their ground operations, Israeli forces have issued widespread evacuation orders, further limiting people’s access to medical care and MSF’s ability to provide it. On May 19, for example, an evacuation order covering almost the entire eastern part of Khan Younis—near Nasser Hospital—forced people to immediately move toward the Al-Mawasi area.
From left: A Palestinian child fills jerrycans with water in Beit Lahia; a 5-month-old child is screened for severe acute malnutrition at Nasser Hospital. Palestine 2025 © Nour Alsaqqa/MSF
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, all public hospitals in northern Gaza have been out of service since Israeli forces besieged Indonesian Hospital in May. MSF’s field hospital in Deir al-Balah saw its bed capacity rise by 150 percent within just a few days in May. According to the UN, there are currently around 1,000 functional hospital beds across the Strip, down from 3,500 before the escalation of the conflict.
“The United States, the UN, EU member states, and all those with influence over Israel must urgently use their political and economic leverage to stop the instrumentalization of aid,” said Avril Benoît, CEO of MSF in the United States. “Humanitarian supplies, food, fuel, and medicines must be allowed to reach the people of Gaza now. Humanitarian aid must reach all the people who desperately need it.”
The UN Refugee Agency estimates that over 138,900 people were forcibly displaced within Gaza from May 15 to 20. Intensified Israeli bombardments and evacuation orders across Khan Younis have forced MSF to reduce lifesaving activities in the emergency rooms of Al-Attar and Al-Mawasi clinics. On May 19, Al-Hekker clinic in Deir al-Balah was also closed. Before that, MSF teams had been providing more than 350 consultations daily, including for pediatric and pre- and postnatal care, psychological first aid, and outpatient nutrition treatment, among other medical services.
A few days earlier, on May 15, Israeli authorities issued an evacuation order to Sheikh Radwan basic health care center in Gaza City, which led to the closure of the facility. Before that, with MSF’s support, Ministry of Health teams were providing around 3,000 consultations daily in an area with an estimated 250,000 people. Sheikh Radwan was the last fully functional public clinic providing basic health care in the area.
