Gaza: EU hypocrisy is fuelling suffering says MSF
The hypocrisy and inaction of the European Union (EU) and its member states have allowed Israel to freely continue its massacre of Palestinians in Gaza with total impunity, said Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in a press conference in Brussels today, 16 June 2025.
MSF International President Dr Christos Christou and Secretary General Christopher Lockyear also sent an Open Letter to EU leaders and the heads of the 27 member states.
MSF calls for impartial needs-based aid to be facilitated into the Gaza Strip at scale, the protection of civilians, and the immediate restoration of a sustained ceasefire; European governments must act decisively to make this happen.
For more than 20 months, Israeli authorities and forces have inflicted a punishing campaign, including large-scale forced displacement, ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in Gaza.
On a daily basis, our teams witness patterns consistent with genocide through deliberate actions by Israeli forces – including mass killings, the destruction of vital civilian infrastructure, and blockades choking off access to food, water, medicines, and other essential humanitarian supplies.
Israel is systematically destroying the conditions necessary for Palestinian life. Gaza’s homes, hospitals, markets, water networks, roads, and power grids have been demolished, not by disregard but by design.
Our work saves lives
“Stopping this requires political courage, legal responsibility, and moral commitment”
The EU and European governments have the political, economic, and diplomatic means to exert real pressure on Israel to stop this assault and open Gaza’s border crossings to unhindered humanitarian aid. These are not theoretical instruments. They can be effectively mobilised in defence of international law and to protect civilians.
However, up to this point, the EU and its member states appear to have abdicated their political leadership to do so. Worse, recent statements European states have made, critical of how the war is being waged, highlights their hypocrisy as they continue to supply the weapons being used to kill, maim, and burn people who end up in our hospitals.
“The war in Gaza is one of the most egregious, deadly and ruthless wars waged on a people of our time,” says Christopher Lockyear, MSF Secretary General. “It is an orchestrated massacre of Palestinian people. It is purposeful ethnic cleansing.”
“Stopping this requires political courage, legal responsibility, and moral commitment.”
“The scale of suffering in Gaza demands more than empty rhetoric.”
The dangerous weaponisation of aid
Aid has been weaponised, used as leverage, conditioned, or blocked entirely. Since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation launched its activities on 27 May, as part of the US-Israeli scheme to instrumentalise aid, hundreds of Palestinians have been treated in hospitals, and scores have been killed, after being shot at these aid distribution sites while waiting to receive the basic necessities for survival.
“The imposed system of aid delivery is not only a failure, but it is dehumanising and dangerous,” says Lockyear.
“It exposes thousands of Palestinians to unnecessary risks, leading to bloodshed that can be avoided if humanitarian organisations are allowed to provide aid impartially and safely, at the necessary scale that is so desperately need in Gaza.”
Today, Nasser Hospital, southern Gaza’s main referral hospital for thousands of patients in the area, is barely able to continue working, due to repeated evacuation orders and movement restrictions on staff and patients.
In recent weeks, MSF teams admitted over 500 patients requiring medical care to the hospital, while supporting the hospital’s medical staff to respond to repeated mass casualty influxes from constant bombings and attacks.
“Humanitarian organisations have set up makeshift hospitals to fill the gap, but they can in no way replace regular hospitals,” says Lockyear.
“The remaining hospitals must be protected, and the entry of aid facilitated. Failure to do so will cost yet more lives.”
MSF and the Israel - Gaza war
An unprecedented humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Gaza. MSF teams have worked to treat the wounded and supply overwhelmed hospitals as indiscriminate airstrikes and a state of siege threaten millions of men, women and children.