Your questions about our work in Gaza, answered

What is MSF’s response to accusations by Israeli authorities that its medical work in Gaza is not needed?

MSF teams provide lifesaving medical care and humanitarian aid in Gaza. We currently support 1 in 5 hospital beds. One in three babies is born in an MSF-supported facility. In 2025 alone, MSF teams carried out almost 800,000 outpatient consultations; handled over 100,000 trauma cases; performed 22,700 surgical operations; administered 45,000 vaccinations; and provided more than 40,000 individual mental health sessions. We distributed more than 700 million liters [184 million gallons] of water and produced nearly 100 million liters [26 million gallons] of clean water. Many of the services provided by MSF are largely unavailable elsewhere in Gaza due to Israel’s systematic destruction of the health system and civilian infrastructure.

If MSF loses access to Gaza, people will lose access to critical medical care and water. MSF’s vital work serves nearly half a million Palestinians in Gaza.

In Gaza, MSF is currently supporting six public hospitals and running two field hospitals. We also support six general health care centers and run an inpatient feeding center for people with malnutrition. MSF has recently opened six new medical points where we provide wound care and other general health care services. For 2026, MSF has committed an estimated 100–120 million euros for our humanitarian response in Gaza.

MSF has been working in Palestine since 1988.

Is it true that MSF has not cooperated with Israel?  

For months, MSF has sought engagement with Israeli authorities to renew our registration to work in Palestine. We remain open to dialogue with them to maintain our critical medical operations in Gaza and the West Bank, to ensure that MSF can continue delivering lifesaving medical care to people in desperate need and to ensure the safety of our teams. We will continue to consult with our Palestinian colleagues on next steps.

Israel is also using smear campaigns and allegations against aid organizations to arbitrarily restrict access to critical care for Palestinians and limit witnessing from independent organizations working on the ground. These types of accusations threaten humanitarian workers, who are delivering vital care and services under extremely challenging conditions.

Such accusations fit within a long-standing pattern used by Israeli authorities, alongside numerous physical attacks and bureaucratic obstacles, to restrict the flow of aid into Gaza. Similar tactics were used in 2024 against UNRWA, the single largest provider of services for Palestinians in the region. 

What is the status of MSF’s registration to operate in Gaza and the West Bank?

As of January 1, 2026, MSF’s registration status with Israeli authorities to work in Gaza and the West Bank has expired. As such, we are required to cease operations in Israeli-occupied territory by March 1, 2026. 

We are seeking avenues to ensure that our humanitarian response continues in Gaza and the West Bank. We are also engaging with the Israeli authorities to ensure we can continue our activities, the prevention of which is a direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2720 — which calls for the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians.

What is the actual impact of this decision on MSF’s activities so far?

MSF remains fully operational in Gaza and the West Bank and continues to deliver critical medical care. However, as MSF’s registration in Israel expired on December 31, 2025, we are no longer authorized to import supplies or have international staff enter Gaza. This deprives our medical teams of much-needed materials and technical skills.

We remain committed to providing assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and call on the Israeli authorities to allow us to continue our lifesaving work. We are asking Israeli authorities to put in place acceptable operating conditions, including guarantees for the safety of MSF staff and patients.

Is it true that MSF provided a staff list to Israel?

No, we have not at any time shared staff lists or personal details about our Palestinian or internationally mobile staff with Israeli authorities as part of this registration process. In an effort to explore every possible option to continue providing critical medical care to Palestinians, MSF informed Israeli authorities on January 23 that, as an exceptional measure, we would be prepared to share a defined list of Palestinian and international staff subject to clear parameters to ensure their safety. This position followed consultations with our Palestinian colleagues and with the understanding that staff information would only be shared with the express agreement of individuals concerned.

We were seeking concrete assurances, including that any staff information would be used only for stated administrative purposes and would not put colleagues at risk, that MSF would retain full authority over all human resource matters and management of medical humanitarian supplies, and that all communications defaming MSF and undermining staff safety would cease.  

In the absence of these assurances, we will not share staff information under the current circumstances. MSF remains open to ongoing dialogue with Israeli authorities to maintain our critical medical operations in Gaza and the West Bank and to ensure that MSF can continue delivering lifesaving medical care to people in desperate need while protecting the safety of our staff.

Are you providing compensation to the families of MSF staff members who have been killed by Israeli forces?

Yes, we are offering financial support to all the families of MSF staff members who have been killed by Israeli forces. We are in contact with all the families to support them with legal and financial support and health coverage for dependents, and we will continue to do so.

Is it true that MSF has a relationship with Hamas in Gaza?  

MSF works with the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which is part of the Hamas civilian administration. Coordinating with local medical authorities is standard practice everywhere we operate. As everywhere, MSF operates strictly in accordance with humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independence. We provide medical care based on need alone, regardless of politics, race, ethnicity, religion, or other affiliation.

Why did MSF suspend and stop some medical activities at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis?

MSF made the difficult decision to suspend all non-critical medical operations in Nasser Hospital, the largest functional facility in Gaza, as of January 20, 2026, due to concerns about the management of the structure, the safeguarding of its neutrality, and security breaches. 

In recent months, patients and MSF personnel have reported a pattern of unacceptable acts in areas of the large hospital compound, with an uptick since the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect in October 2025. Our teams have reported the presence of armed men, some of them masked; intimidation; arbitrary arrests of patients; and a recent situation involving the suspected movement of weapons. While none of these incidents occurred in parts of the hospital compound where MSF works, they pose serious security threats to our teams and patients.

MSF formally expressed its strong concern to relevant authorities and emphasized the incompatibility of such violations with our medical mission. Hospitals must remain neutral, civilian spaces, free from military presence or activity, to ensure the safe and impartial delivery of medical care.

MSF calls on all armed groups, Hamas, and Israeli forces to respect medical facilities and ensure the protection of civilians.

How does MSF respond to accusations that the organization is not neutral?

United under a single charter, MSF teams bring together health professionals, logisticians, and administrative staff from dozens of nationalities, both internationally mobile and locally employed. After assessing the needs of affected communities, we provide assistance in accordance with medical ethics and the principles of humanitarian action.

Impartiality is the cornerstone of MSF’s mission. We deliver aid without discrimination, prioritizing those most immediately at risk. MSF operates with a spirit of neutrality and does not take sides in armed conflicts. However, we may publicly denounce and criticize obstacles to our humanitarian work and violations of international law.

In conflict situations, MSF often bears witness to and speaks out about attacks on civilians.

Our teams report what they see with their own eyes, and what they themselves experience, in Gaza and the West Bank. Numerous observers, legal experts, human rights organizations, and several United Nations reports also describe the total destruction of the Gaza Strip. This includes Israel’s dismantling of the health system, siege imposed on the territory, attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, and the man-made malnutrition emergency, which are all part of a genocidal campaign.

Why is MSF speaking out about the conflict in Gaza?

One of the central pillars of our identity is to bear witness and call attention to the problems driving emergency needs in the places where we provide humanitarian assistance.  

We have a long history of speaking out when governments or other actors implement policies that threaten the health and safety of our patients or our staff, for example in conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan. For example, in 2015, we condemned the US government following the bombing of our hospital by US armed forces in Kunduz, Afghanistan, which killed 42 patients and staff. We called out the Saudi- and Emirati-led coalition for belatedly acknowledging responsibility but avoiding true accountability for a deadly 2016 strike on MSF-supported Shiara Hospital in northern Yemen. And in 2016, we condemned Syrian and Russian forces for attacks on MSF-supported hospitals in Syria.

International humanitarian law and the rules of war require militaries to distinguish between civilians and combatants and prohibit attacks that cause disproportionate harm to civilians and civilian objects.

Medical facilities and their surrounding areas have repeatedly been attacked or subjected to evacuation orders by Israeli forces, making access to health care extremely dangerous for patients and putting the lives of medical staff at risk.

Why are your statements so critical of Israel? Why are you not talking about Hamas?

As humanitarians, we grieve for all civilian lives lost, and the vast majority of the victims of this conflict are civilians, including many elderly people, women, and children. Violence against civilians is never justified, and all civilians deserve protection.

Our statements and reporting are rooted in the experiences of our patients and staff on the ground, and the actions we directly witness in the areas where we work. In Gaza, Israeli armed forces' activities are central to the challenges civilians face, particularly in terms of access to medical care and the safety of health workers and facilities. We report on these realities because they directly impact our ability to provide care.

How does MSF respond to critiques that it is anti-Israel or antisemitic?

MSF understands how dangerous antisemitism is and we are committed to taking it seriously.

Any form of bigotry or discrimination by MSF staff is unacceptable.

We do not believe that criticism of Israeli government policies is equivalent to antisemitism. Our statements and reporting are based on the realities on the ground and the events witnessed by our staff and patients.

MSF speaks out when governments or actors implement policies that are harmful to the health and safety of our patients or our staff. The way Israel has prosecuted this war has caused massive death and suffering among Palestinian civilians and has put our staff at risk. This is inconsistent with the norms and laws of war.