Report : Israeli obstructions to aid and attacks on humanitarian workers

In this report, Médecins du Monde presents a detailed account of events and data covering the period from October 2023 to September 2024, demonstrating how Médecins du Monde’s medical response is being impeded in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Some of the most striking examples include:

• Médecins du Monde’s staff members continue to be on the frontlines and provide aid under extremely volatile conditions while they are themselves unprotected, displaced, deprived of proper food and clothing, and vulnerable to bombings, diseases, and harsh weather conditions. Since October 2023, around 300 humanitarian aid workers have died. More humanitarian colleagues have been killed in Gaza in the past year than in any other single year of conflict, anywhere in the world. Médecins du Monde lost a colleague when their building was bombed by the Israeli army in Gaza City on November 5, 2023. Most of our colleagues have lost loved ones.

• Médecins du Monde’s premises have been raided and damaged by Israeli forces despite clearly following “deconfliction” procedures.

• Both Médecins du Monde’s staff and operations have suffered repeated waves of forced displacements due to Israeli military orders. As of September 2024, 92% of Médecins du Monde’s staff have been forcibly displaced. Médecins du Monde’s operations have been forcibly relocated up to three times (from Gaza City to Rafah, to the Middle Area, and to Khan Younis). Every time our teams regain a bit of stability, new Israeli displacement orders force them to start all over again—their lives and our operations.

• Only four trucks containing Médecins du Monde’s aid have been able to enter the Gaza Strip in the past year. Shipments were blocked for one to two months before they were allowed to enter the enclave. Médecins du Monde had to wait eleven months for Israeli authorities to open a humanitarian corridor from the West Bank, a territory less than 50 kilometers away, where most of the supplies needed for the medical emergency response in Gaza are available.

• In the occupied West Bank, all of Médecins du Monde’s teams report that restrictions on humanitarian access and movement have drastically worsened since October 2023. With the sharp increase in settler attacks and the escalation of Israeli military raids against Palestinian communities, the communities that are most in need of humanitarian aid are the most dangerous and hard to reach. Furthermore, on average, Israeli checkpoint delays are causing the entire team operating in the north to lose the equivalent of one full working day each week.

“Israel, as the occupying power, has the duty to ensure the adequate provision of food, medical supplies, shelter, and other essential resources for the survival of the civilian population in the occupied territory. Not only are Israeli authorities failing in this obligation, but they are impeding the lifesaving work of humanitarian actors committed to providing for the survival and basic needs of the Palestinian civilian population,” dénonce Jean-François Corty.

Médecins du Monde is gravely concerned for the safety and security of the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as for its own staff. Médecins du Monde has been relentlessly calling on states with influence over the parties involved in the conflict to take concrete actions, beyond mere condemnation, to ensure an immediate and permanent ceasefire, full-scale and unimpeded humanitarian access, and respect for international humanitarian law throughout the entire occupied Palestinian territory.