How MSF is responding to the war in Gaza

MSF has over 1,430 staff working in Gaza's health facilities, including our two field hospitals in Deir al-Balah and our clinics in Gaza City and Khan Younis. Our teams provide surgical care, wound and burn care, malnutrition screening and treatment, maternal and pediatric care, physiotherapy, vaccination, mental health support, water and sanitation support, and care for non-communicable diseases, among other services. We are also assisting medical evacuations and providing evacuees with rehabilitative care at our reconstructive surgery hospital in Amman, Jordan.  

Medical services

MSF teams have worked in health facilities across Gaza, including its largest hospitals and our own clinics and field hospital. However, due to extremely volatile conditions on the ground — such as attacks on health facilities and recurrent evacuation orders — our teams have had to move from facility to facility and continually adapt our activities.  

Despite the so-called ceasefire, MSF teams continue to treat patients suffering from blast injuries, fragment wounds, and blunt trauma caused by explosions and gunshot wounds, including those shot by Israeli forces near the shifting “yellow line.” 

As of May 2026, MSF is running or supporting health services in more than 10 locations across north, south, and central Gaza. We currently support two public hospitals, Nasser and Al-Helou, while supporting four general health care centers and working in five clinics and four medical points. We also run one field hospital and support another in the Deir al-Balah area. 

Medical evacuations

MSF supports medical evacuations for patients in need of specialized care no longer available in Gaza due to Israeli forces’ decimation of its health system. To date, MSF has supported 147 medical evacuations. Sixty-six of these patients were evacuated to Jordan for treatment at MSF’s reconstructive surgery hospital in Amman; the remainder were evacuated to Spain, Switzerland, and other countries in partnership with governing authorities. 

But this is only a drop in the ocean: More than 18,500 Palestinians require medical evacuation, including children and elderly patients with severe burns and fractures, amputations, congenital anomalies, and other serious conditions. A clear, predictable medical evacuation system must be established urgently — with full respect to patients’ right to a safe, voluntary, and dignified return to Gaza. 

Water and sanitation support

Water and sanitation is a significant part of MSF’s response in Gaza. We carry out water trucking activities, establish distribution points, and provide technical support to desalination plants. In 2025, MSF distributed over 1.1 million gallons of water across Gaza. In May 2026, MSF purified 17,114,122 gallons of water through reverse osmosis and distributed 15,506,371 gallons.

Lack of water is life-threatening and can contribute to health issues like diarrhea, jaundice, and scabies. Dehydration can be lethal and also makes it harder to recover from other diseases.  

Gaza has no independent means of producing drinkable water, as its groundwater is too salty or contaminated by sewage and agricultural chemicals to be fit for human consumption. Israeli forces have decimated the water network. And with the establishment of the yellow line, key water infrastructure like boreholes are dangerous to reach as they are located within or close to the militarized zone. 

Israeli authorities have also blocked the entry of key water production supplies, leaving authorization requests for items like pumps, spare parts, and tanks pending for months. Since January, one-third of our requests to bring in critical water and sanitation supplies have been rejected or left unanswered. 

Between the October 10, 2025 — when the ceasefire went into effect — through April 2026, MSF provided: 

• Care for 49,089 trauma cases  
• Outpatient consultations for 594,206 people  
• Care for 17,974 diarrhea cases
• 14,412 surgical procedures  
• Inpatient admission for 27,684 people  
• 7,515 deliveries  
• 41,199 individual mental health sessions  
• 1,105 routine vaccinations  
• 17,114,122 gallons of water produced through reverse osmosis  
• 15,506,371 gallons of water through distributions

Earlier this year, Israel barred MSF and other major nongovernmental organizations from working in Gaza and the West Bank, leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unable to access lifesaving health care, water, and other essential services.

Since our international staff were forced to leave Gaza at the end of February, MSF has been operating with about 1,430 Palestinian staff in Gaza (registered under the Palestinian Authority), with international staff providing remote support from Amman. Israeli authorities have also blocked MSF from bringing supplies into Palestine since January. Stocks of medication, medical equipment, and engine oil — essential for generators keeping babies in incubators alive — are critically depleted. This engineered scarcity has made it impossible to meet basic needs. 

MSF will continue to provide medical humanitarian care and bear witness to the suffering of the Palestinian people for as long as possible. We are working urgently to preserve access to health care for our patients in an increasingly constrained environment. 

The medical needs in Gaza are immense and urgent, not only for people wounded or burned in strikes but for children with malnutrition, pregnant women who are about to deliver, the elderly, and people with chronic diseases. At the same time, the provision of care has become even more challenging due to the systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system, with repeated attacks by Israeli forces on health facilities and personnel, as well as shortages of essential supplies including vital medicines and medical equipment. The core medical needs our teams are seeing on the ground include: 

Malnutrition

On August 22, 2025, the United Nations-coordinated Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system officially declared famine in Gaza governorate, in the north of the Gaza Strip, indicating a severe risk of malnutrition, with children being the most vulnerable. Israel’s manufactured malnutrition crisis in Gaza had a devastating impact on pregnant and breastfeeding women, newborns, and infants under 6 months old during periods of intense hostilities and siege: Between late 2024 and early 2026, our teams at four health facilities recorded higher levels of miscarriage as well as prematurity and mortality among infants born to mothers affected by malnutrition during their pregnancy.  

War wounds, crush injuries, and burn care

Many patients require care for war wounds, crush injuries, and burns sustained in bombings and other attacks by Israeli forces. In 2025, MSF teams saw an increase in the number of patients with burn injuries — most of them children. Many of these children were burned by bomb blasts; others by boiling water or fuel used for cooking or heating in makeshift shelters.  

Infections and diseases

Infections resulting from poorly treated wounds are a growing concern, driven by the difficulty wounded people face accessing care and follow-up, shortages of supplies, and lack of access to hygiene. There is also a high risk of infectious diseases including diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, skin infections, and hepatitis due to overcrowding and poor hygienic conditions in camps where displaced people are sheltering, and shortages of medicines and medical supplies.  

Pediatric care

Even before the current war started, many years of instability had already taken a toll on the physical and mental health of Gaza’s children, leaving many with life-changing injuries, amputated limbs, and the trauma of losing parents and other loved ones along with their homes and schools. Children are also especially vulnerable to various health risks arising from insufficient access to water, food, and warm shelter.

Maternal care

Pregnant women in Gaza have been forced to navigate severe obstacles to reach medical facilities for prenatal care or delivery, including traveling dangerous routes amid fighting and without safe transportation, which can delay access to care and increase the risk of complications. Those able to reach a hospital often find them without capacity, and end up giving birth in in plastic tents or public spaces; others must return to their makeshift shelters mere hours after undergoing cesarean sections. To date, MSF teams have assisted more than 21000 deliveries in Gaza — 1 in 3 births.

Humanitarian aid and medical supplies

Throughout the war, our teams operated under a severe shortage of medical supplies such as anesthetics, pediatric antibiotics, and medicines for chronic conditions like epilepsy, hypertension, and diabetes as a result of the blockade. Staff have been forced to ration medications and even turn some patients away because they don’t have the proper tools to treat them.  

Since October 2023, Palestinians in the West Bank have faced an escalation of violence by Israeli forces and settlers, including movement restrictions, obstructions of health care, demolition of homes, and forced displacement. Since October 2023, at least 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including at least 239 children, according to OCHA.  

MSF calls for an immediate end to forced displacement and military aggression against Palestinians in the West Bank.  

MSF activities in the West Bank

Our teams in the West Bank are expanding efforts to reach communities where people are unable to access care, such as the north of the occupied territory and remote areas such as Masafer Yatta in the south. We aim to bolster the local emergency response capacity, including by training health care workers and teaching community members how to provide first aid in the event that they are unable to reach care when it’s needed. We also distribute relief items for displaced people.  

In Nablus and Hebron, MSF teams are providing psychosocial support; care for sexual and gender-based violence; and psychological, emergency, and first response training. In Hebron, we run mobile clinics providing general health care, sexual and reproductive health care, and mental health support. 

MSF does not currently run medical programs in Israel but offered its support to Israeli hospitals treating large numbers of casualties following the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. We focus on filling the greatest gaps in health care, and Israel has strong emergency and health systems. 

MSF provides medical care to anyone who needs it, regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. As an organization, we focus on filling the greatest gaps in health care.  

To facilitate our humanitarian and medical work, we speak to all parties to the conflict to request safe, rapid, and unimpeded access to civilians who require medical care and to ensure the safety and security of our staff. Our independence and impartiality are essential to our work in all the places we operate across the globe. We also believe that the principles of impartiality and neutrality are not synonymous with silence. When the world turns its back on crises, we are duty-bound to raise our voices and speak out on behalf of our patients. Our decision to do so is always guided by our mission to do no harm, preserve respect and dignity, and protect life and health.   

Read more frequently asked questions about our work in Gaza >