MSF statement on sharing staff information and humanitarian operations in Palestine
Following many months of unsuccessful engagement with Israeli authorities, and in the absence of securing assurances to ensure the safety of our staff or the independent management of our operations, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has concluded that it will not share a list of its Palestinian and international staff with Israeli authorities in the current circumstances.
In March 2025, Israeli authorities announced that organisations seeking registration would be required to provide personal information about their staff. From the outset, MSF raised serious concerns about this request in a context where medical and humanitarian workers have been intimidated, arbitrarily detained, and attacked.
Since October 2023, 1,700 health staff have been killed, as well as 15 MSF colleagues. On 30 December, Israeli authorities announced that MSF's previous registration had lapsed and was therefore expected to cease operations within 60 days.
In an effort to explore every possible option – however limited – to continue providing critical medical care, MSF informed Israeli authorities on 23 January that, as an exceptional measure, MSF would be prepared to share a defined list of Palestinian and international staff names, subject to clear parameters, with our staff safety at its core.
This position was defined following consultation with our Palestinian colleagues and with the clear understanding no staff information would be shared without the express agreement of individuals concerned.
However, despite repeated efforts, it became evident in recent days that we were unable to build engagement with Israeli authorities on the concrete assurances required.
These included that any staff information would be used only for its stated administrative purpose and would not put colleagues at risk; that MSF would retain full authority over all human resource matters and management of medical humanitarian supplies, and that all communications defaming MSF and undermining staff safety would cease.
As a result, and in the absence of these clear assurances, we have concluded that we will not share staff information in the current circumstances. No staff information has been shared with the Israeli authorities in this process.
In the midst of the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and extreme violence against healthcare workers, Israeli authorities are forcing humanitarian organisations into an impossible choice – forced to choose between sharing this information about our staff or interrupting critical medical care.
If MSF is expelled from Gaza and the West Bank it would have a devastating impact, as Palestinians face a brutal winter amidst destroyed homes and urgent humanitarian needs. Humanitarian conditions remain extreme: nearly 500 people have been killed since October, basic services including food, water, shelter, healthcare, fuel, and livelihoods have been largely destroyed, and the health system is nearly non-functional, with many specialised services, such as burn care, unavailable. In 2025, MSF provided 800,000 consultations, assisted in one in three births, and supported one in five hospital beds - services that cannot be easily replaced.
MSF and the Gaza genocide
As of December 2025, over 70,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including 15 MSF staff.
Palestinians in Gaza are near fully reliant on aid for basic survival. Although commercial trucks are entering the Strip, the amount of goods allowed into the Strip by Israeli authorities is far from sufficient, is deliberately blocked, and continues to keep Palestinians lives hanging by a thread.
For the past two years, our teams have seen: the deliberate targeting of medics and hospitals; the use of starvation as a weapon of war with a blockade starving people of food, water, fuel and medical supplies; the militarisation of aid, and the massacre of starving people queuing for aid.
In short, we are witnessing a genocide.