GAZA: Doctors Can’t Stop Genocide – World Leaders Can

Gaza is not just a humanitarian catastrophe - it is the systematic destruction of a people. MSF is clear: Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health (MoH), more than 64,000 people have been killed, including 20,000 children. The toll is likely far higher, with many more thought to be trapped under the rubble.

There is no safe place in Gaza. Even though health facilities have a protected status, hospitals have been bombed and medical facilities have been raided, endangering the lives of staff and patients. Today, no hospital in Gaza is fully functional. Those that remain partially operational are overwhelmed and severely lacking in lifesaving supplies.

Twelve of our colleagues have been killed and MSF orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Mohammed Obeid, remains detained by Israel since October 2024. In total, more than 1,500 health workers have been killed. A huge loss to their families and Gaza’s health system.

Israeli authorities are choking Gaza by imposing a total siege that deliberately cuts people off from fuel, food, water and medical supplies. Famine has already been confirmed in the Gaza Governorate, and people are dying of starvation. The little food aid that the Israeli authorities allow has been cruelly weaponised, An Israeli-run, US-funded operation, called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is responsible for killing 1,400 people and injuring 4,000 more.

The lack of clean water is driving further suffering and disease. Last month, our teams treated 4000 cases of watery diarrhoea, potentially fatal for children already weakened by malnutrition. MSF is regularly blocked by Israeli authorities from bringing in desalination equipment and other supplies that could increase access to clean water.

Through their inaction, silence, or by directly supporting the Israeli authorities, governments around the world are complicit in this genocide. They have both a moral and legal obligation to respond, using every political, diplomatic, and economic tool available to stop the atrocities.

We call on states to urgently use their influence to:

• Stop the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

• Stop ethnic cleansing and forced displacement.

• Secure an immediate and sustained ceasefire.

• Lift the siege and allow immediate, unhindered delivery of large-scale, independent humanitarian aid.

• Stop the attacks on medical facilities and health workers.

• Dismantle the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

• Allow medical evacuations for those in need of urgent care.

• Stop arms transfers that kill and maim our patients.

Our 1,118 colleagues working in Gaza cannot stop this genocide. But world leaders can — if they choose to act.

MSF Secretary General, Christopher Lockyear speaking at a Gaza Press Conference in Brussels. Location: Belgium | Date: 16/06/2025 | Photographer: Bruno De CockPeople standing on a rooftop watch as a ball of fire and smoke rises above a building in Gaza City on October 7, 2023 during an Israeli air strike that hit the Palestine Tower building. Location: Palestinian Territories | Date: 07/10/2023 |Photographer: Mahmud Hams

MSF mobile clinic teams are providing primary health care to Palestinians in the center of Jabalya city, north of Gaza Strip, Palestine. Location: Palestinian Territories | Date: 16/02/2025|Photographer: Nour Alsaqqa

Nine aid organisations, including Doctors Without Borders, protest in front of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin on 28 May 2025 against the instrumentalisation of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip and for the protection of international humanitarian law, whose “red line” must be respected. Location: Germany | Date: 28/05/2025| Photographer: MSF

Jane Rabothata

Communications Specialist, Doctors Without Borders

• jane.rabothata@joburg.msf.org
• 0712873613

About Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is a global network of principled medical and other professionals who specialise in medical humanitarian work, driven by our common humanity and guided by medical ethics. We strive to bring emergency medical care to people caught in conflicts, crises, and disasters in more than 70 countries worldwide.

In South Africa, we currently run a non-communicable diseases (NCDs) project in Butterworth, Eastern Cape province, where we support the Department of Health (DoH) in improving care for patients with diabetes and hypertension. The project focuses on improving screening, diagnosis, management, and prevention of NCDs through advocacy, research, health promotion, training, and mentorship of Community Healthcare Workers.

MSF is also recognised as one of the pioneers in providing antiretroviral treatment (ART) in the public sector. It started the first HIV programme in South Africa in 1999. The organisation's earlier interventions in the country have primarily been on developing new testing and treatment strategies for HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB) in Eshowe (Kwa-Zulu Natal) and Khayelitsha (Western Cape). The Eshowe project was handed over to DoH in 2023 after 12 years of operations. The Khayelitsha project was closed in 2020 after 22 years of activities and campaigning for improved HIV and TB treatment.

Other projects we have been involved in include our Migrant Project in the country's capital, Tshwane, which was handed over to authorities and a local Community-Based Organisation after building the capacity to work with undocumented populations. We also previously offered free, high-quality, and confidential medical care to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Rustenburg, North West province.

To learn more about our work in South Africa, please visit this page on our website (www.msf.org.za). To support MSF’s work: