MSF suspends medical services amid intensified Israeli offensive in Gaza City
Hospitals across the Gaza Strip are partially functional and overwhelmed, grappling with critical shortages of staff, supplies, and fuel. Patients who reach care often arrive in critical condition, with delayed treatment worsening outcomes.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been forced to halt critical medical operations in Gaza City as the Israeli offensive intensifies, putting both staff and patients at severe risk.
The humanitarian crisis is worsening as airstrikes and advancing tanks come within one kilometre of MSF healthcare facilities, making it impossible to continue lifesaving services.
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“We have been left with no choice but to stop our activities, as our clinics are encircled by Israeli forces,” said Jacob Granger, MSF Emergency Coordinator in Gaza.
“This is the last thing we wanted, as the needs in Gaza City are enormous, with the most vulnerable people - infants in neo-natal care, those with severe injuries and life-threatening illnesses - unable to move and in grave danger.”
Despite evacuation orders prompting many residents to move south, hundreds of thousands remain trapped in the city, facing the impossible choice of staying amid relentless attacks or abandoning their homes, belongings, and memories to relocate to areas where humanitarian conditions are rapidly deteriorating.
Hospitals across the Gaza Strip are partially functional and overwhelmed, grappling with critical shortages of staff, supplies, and fuel. Patients who reach care often arrive in critical condition, with delayed treatment worsening outcomes.
Last week, MSF clinics in Gaza City provided over 3,640 medical consultations and treated 1,655 cases of malnutrition.
They also treated severe trauma injuries, burns, pregnant women, and patients with ongoing medical needs, underscoring the urgent scale of health requirements.
While MSF has suspended operations in Gaza City, support continues for key services in Ministry of Health facilities, including Al-Helou and Al-Shifa hospitals.
Access to food, water, shelter, and medical care is increasingly limited, and civilians face repeated bombardment. “They are exhausted and are being deliberately deprived of the essentials needed to survive,” MSF noted.
The organisation has called for an immediate cessation of violence and concrete measures to protect civilians.
"Israeli authorities must ensure safe, unhindered access for humanitarian operations and create conditions for sustained delivery of medical and humanitarian aid, conditions currently not met in Gaza City," urged MSF.
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