Palestine: MSF report finds escalating attacks and obstruction of health care in the West Bank

"Palestinian patients are dying because they simply cannot reach hospitals," said Brice de le Vingne, MSF emergency coordinator. "We're seeing ambulances blocked by Israeli forces at checkpoints while carrying critical patients, medical facilities surrounded and raided during active operations, and health care workers subjected to physical violence while trying to save lives."

The report, which covers a one-year period from October 2023 to October 2024, provides in-depth interviews from 38 MSF patients and personnel, hospital staff paramedics, and volunteers supported by MSF who report prolonged and violent Israeli military incursions and stricter movement restrictions. These incidents have all severely hindered access to essential services, particularly health care. The situation has further deteriorated since the ceasefire in Gaza and has exacerbated dire living conditions for many Palestinians who are paying an immense physical and psychological toll.

Health care workers are being targeted by Israeli forces

An increasing number of attacks on medical personnel and facilities have been reported to MSF teams, including attacks on hospitals, destruction of makeshift medical sites in refugee camps, as well as the harassment, detention, injury, and killing of first responders and medical workers by Israeli forces. Between October 2023 and December 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) recorded 694 attacks on health care in the West Bank, with hospitals and health care structures often besieged by military force. Health care workers express a feeling of insecurity as they are frequently harassed, detained, injured, and even killed while trying to do their jobs.

“Israeli forces surrounded the stabilization point [in Tubas], closing both its entrances, even though it was very clear that this was a medical building,” said an MSF-supported medic from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. “They ordered all the paramedics to exit the stabilization point. There were around 22 of us paramedics there. Israeli soldiers shot inside and outside the building, damaging our supplies and the stabilization point.”

During medical emergencies, restrictions of movement can have deadly consequences. Access to health care in this context has been severely impeded by the obstruction and targeting of ambulance movements and the escalation of violent military raids resulting in injuries, fatalities, and the destruction of vital civilian infrastructure, including roads, health care, water pipelines, and electrical systems, particularly in Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps. In remote areas and the outskirts of cities like Jenin or Nablus, the situation is especially dire, as patients with chronic conditions—such as those who need regular dialysis treatment—are forced to stay home due to the untenable obstacles to reaching health care.

On top of the frequent Israeli military incursions, settler violence and the ever-increasing expansion of settlements has left many Palestinians vulnerable to violence and afraid to move within the West Bank. Approximately 1,500 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have been reported by OCHA between October 2023 and October 2024. In total, OCHA has reported that at least 870 Palestinians have been killed and over 7,100 injured between October 2023 and January 2025.

As the occupying power, Israel has legal obligations under international law to ensure access to health care and protect medical personnel. Israel must stop the violence against health care workers, patients, and health facilities, and to stop obstructing medical personnel from performing lifesaving duties.