JERUSALEM, April 16, 2025 — As Israeli forces resume and expand their military offensive by air, ground, and sea on the Gaza Strip in Palestine, forcibly displacing people and deliberately blocking essential aid, Palestinian lives are once again being systematically destroyed, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today.
A series of deadly attacks by Israeli forces demonstrate a blatant disregard for the safety of humanitarian and medical workers in Gaza. We call on Israeli authorities to immediately lift the inhumane and deadly siege on Gaza, protect the lives of Palestinians and humanitarian and medical personnel, and for all parties to restore and sustain the ceasefire.
"Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance,” said Amande Bazerolle, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza. “We are witnessing in real time the destruction and forced displacement of the entire population in Gaza. With nowhere safe for Palestinians or those trying to help them, the humanitarian response is severely struggling under the weight of insecurity and critical supply shortages, leaving people with few, if any, options for accessing care."
Over 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, nearly a third of whom are children, according to the Ministry of Health. Since the resumption of hostilities on March 18, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to local authorities.
Humanitarian and medical workers must be protected
According to the United Nations, at least 409 aid workers, most of whom were staff from UNWRA, the main provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza, have been killed since October 2023. Eleven MSF colleagues, some while on duty, have been killed since the start of the war, including two in just the past two weeks.
In the latest attack by Israeli forces on aid workers, the bodies of 15 emergency responders and the ambulances they were traveling in were found in a mass grave on March 30 in Rafah, southern Gaza. The group was killed by Israeli forces while trying to assist civilians caught in shelling on March 23. Recent publicly shared evidence has shown that the workers and their vehicles were clearly marked and identifiable, challenging the initial claims given by Israeli authorities.
“This horrific killing of aid workers is yet another example of the complete disregard shown by Israeli forces for the protection of humanitarian and medical workers,” said Claire Magone, general director of MSF France. “The silence and unconditional support of Israel's closest allies further emboldens these actions.”
Only international and independent investigations can bring to light the circumstances of these attacks on aid workers, and who is responsible.
Although the situation in Gaza has been catastrophic for over 18 months, in the past three weeks MSF has witnessed several incidents involving the killing of humanitarian and medical workers.
The coordination of humanitarian movements with Israeli authorities, known as the Humanitarian Notification System (HNS), an already imperfect mechanism, has become more unreliable and now barely affords any guarantees of protection. Shells or bullets have hit health facilities where we work, humanitarian compounds, MSF offices and guesthouses, and other locations where humanitarian stakeholders have informed Israeli authorities of their presence. Areas near health care facilities have been subjected to strikes, fighting, and evacuation orders.
MSF teams have had to leave many facilities, while others continue operating with staff and patients trapped inside and unable to leave safely for hours at a time.
On April 7, MSF teams and patients were trapped in the MSF field hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. Hamas launched rockets nearby, endangering both patients and staff and leading to an evacuation order by Israeli forces, who also carried out strikes near the compounds of Al-Aqsa and Nasser hospitals. We strongly denounce these actions by the warring parties and call on them to respect and protect health care facilities, patients, and medical staff.
Since March 18, MSF has not been able to return to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, where our teams were set to begin pediatric care before they were forced to flee the field hospital, which was set up next to the compound. MSF mobile clinics in northern Gaza were suspended, and in the south, teams have been unable to return to Al-Shaboura clinic in Rafah.
Dwindling supplies across Gaza
The full siege on Gaza has depleted food, fuel, and medical stocks. MSF is facing especially acute shortages of medications for pain management and chronic illnesses, antibiotics, and critical surgical materials. The lack of fuel across the Strip will inevitably lead to the suspension of medical activities, as hospitals rely on generators for electricity to keep patients in critical condition alive and conduct lifesaving operations.
“Israeli authorities have deliberately blocked all aid from entering Gaza for over a month,” said Bazerolle. “Humanitarians have been forced to watch people suffer and die while carrying the impossible burden of providing relief with depleted supplies, all while facing the same life-threatening conditions themselves. There is no way they can carry out their mission under such circumstances. This is not a humanitarian failure—it is a political choice, and a deliberate assault on a people’s ability to survive, carried out with impunity.”
Israeli authorities must end their collective punishment of Palestinians. We urge Israel's allies to end their complicity and stop enabling the destruction of Palestinian lives.
