Palestinians in Gaza are being deliberately asphyxiated by Israeli forces

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, at least 20 medical facilities in Gaza have been damaged or forced partially or completely out of service in the past week alone amid increasing Israeli military operations, intensified airstrikes, and widespread evacuation orders.

Israeli authorities must stop the deliberate asphyxiation of Palestinians in Gaza and the annihilation of their health care system—actions that are underpinning their campaign of ethnic cleansing.

“The Israeli authorities’ decision to allow a ridiculously inadequate amount of aid into Gaza after months of an air-tight siege signals their intention to avoid the accusation of starving people in Gaza, while in fact keeping them barely surviving,” said Pascale Coissard, MSF emergency coordinator in Khan Younis. “This plan is a way to instrumentalize aid, making it a tool to further Israeli forces’ military objectives."

Nasser Hospital compound struck multiple times

On May 19, between 6 and 6:30 a.m., MSF teams reported hearing almost one strike per minute in Khan Younis. One of these strikes hit the Nasser Hospital compound, 100 meters away from the hospital’s intensive care unit and the inpatient department, which are run by MSF. This is the third time in two months that the Nasser Hospital compound has been struck, once again depriving people of treatment and care. 

To reduce the risks, our teams were forced to temporarily close both the outpatient department and sedation room for patients awaiting or recovering from surgery, as well as suspend physiotherapy and mental health activities, which are essential for burn patients—most of whom are children. This strike also severely damaged the Ministry of Health's pharmacy store in Nasser Hospital. This puts additional pressure on supplies at a time when medical stocks are already running critically low due to the siege.

Ongoing bombings and evacuation orders further limit access to care  

As part of the expansion of their ground operations, Israeli forces have issued widescale 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, at the edge of Nasser Hospital, forced people to immediately move toward the Al-Mawasi area.

The Site Management Cluster estimates that over 138,900 people were forcibly displaced between May 15-20. The intensified Israeli bombardments and evacuation orders across Khan Younis have forced MSF to maintain only lifesaving activities in the emergency rooms of Al-Attar and Al-Mawasi clinics. Since yesterday, Al-Hekker clinic in Deir al-Balah has also been closed. Before that, MSF teams had been providing more than 350 consultations per day for pediatric, prenatal and post-natal care, psychological first aid, and outpatient nutrition treatment, among other medical issues.

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 per day in an area with an estimated 250,000 people. This was the last fully functional public basic health care clinic in the area.

According to the Ministry of Health, following the besiegement of the Indonesian Hospital, all public hospitals in North Gaza are now out of service. The MSF field hospital in Deir al-Balah has seen its bed capacity rise to 150 percent over the last few days, forcing it to add additional staff and increase their baseline by 20 beds. According to the World Health Organization, there are currently around 1,900 functional hospital beds across the Strip, while bed capacity before the war was 3,500. 

Attacks on civilians and health care must stop now.