Gaza: MSF condemns Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital
Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) strongly condemns Israel’s strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
This is the largest remaining hospital still functioning in the Gaza Strip, and also where MSF teams work.
On 23 March, Israeli forces targeted the hospital’s inpatient surgical department, killing two people, according to the Ministry of Health. MSF teams confirmed there were several people injured, one of which was admitted to our trauma unit, and that severe damage was done to the building.
This attack shows a total disregard for the protection of medical facilities, endangered patients and medical staff and the very provision of healthcare.
As Israeli forces escalate their operations in Gaza once again, MSF calls for the respect and protection of healthcare facilities, patients and medical staff in Gaza, where the health system has been all but destroyed.
“We cannot go back to repeated attacks”
"Strikes such as these are horrific for staff and patients,” says Claire Nicolet, MSF Head of Emergencies in Gaza.
“We cannot go back to repeated attacks on healthcare facilities when the health system in Gaza is already hanging by a thread, and no supplies have entered in weeks."
While Gaza's healthcare system has collapsed and the medical needs of people continue to skyrocket, medical workers are yet again forced to fear for their lives while providing care.
At Nasser Hospital, MSF colleagues, who were working in different hospital departments, described the panic among patients at the time of the attack.
“The distance between us and the explosion was so close that we could’ve been hit too,” explains an MSF nurse who works in another ward in Nasser Hospital and was close by when the strike happened.
“Our colleagues, medical staff, patients and their caretakers were all terrified."
Not a single hospital unaffected
During Israel’s war on Gaza, MSF has witnessed relentless attacks on health facilities, and a complete disregard for patients, medical workers and International Humanitarian Law, resulting in the systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system.
Not a single hospital in the Gaza Strip is currently fully functional, and only 21 out of the Strip’s 36 hospitals are partially functioning, according to the World Health Organization.
As one of the last main hospitals in southern Gaza, Nasser Hospital provides care for people with severe burns and trauma injuries, newborns, and pregnant women.
Since returning in mid-May 2024, MSF teams have been supporting the emergency, paediatric, and maternity departments at Nasser Hospital, as well as running a burn and trauma unit.
Before this, in February 2024, MSF teams had been forced to flee after the hospital was shelled by Israeli forces.
Added to this, Nasser Hospital – like other healthcare facilities in Gaza – is facing several challenges with supplies, including hygiene items, medication and surgical items, while Israeli authorities have continued their siege on the Strip for over 20 days.
Due to the numerous influxes of patients from recent bombings, MSF stocks are decreasing faster than expected, and the blockade is making it impossible for our teams to restock vital items such as antibiotics, painkillers and anaesthetics.
In a separate incident on 24 March, MSF teams at Al-Mawasi Primary Healthcare Clinic were forced to close the emergency room, evacuate the facility and suspend activities for the day due to close-by shootings and shelling.
Healthcare facilities, patients and medical staff must be protected.
MSF calls once again for the immediate restoration of the ceasefire and for the resumption of the entry of essential aid and basic supplies, which people in Gaza desperately need.
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.