In this report, Médecins du Monde reveals the details of the numerous obstructions to humanitarian aid observed between October 2023 and September 2024. It demonstrates the direct impact of these obstructions on Médecins du Monde’s medical response both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Here are a few concrete examples that illustrate the scale of the situation:
- Médecins du Monde teams continue to provide frontline humanitarian aid in extremely unstable conditions while also being vulnerable, displaced, deprived of adequate food and clothing, and exposed to bombings, disease, and weather conditions. Since October 2023, approximately 300 humanitarian workers have died. Over the past year, the number of humanitarian colleagues killed in Gaza has been higher than in any other year of conflict, anywhere in the world1. Médecins du Monde lost a colleague when his building was bombed by the Israeli army in Gaza City on November 5, 2023. All our colleagues have lost loved ones.
- Médecins du Monde’s premises were searched and damaged by Israeli forces despite clearly following so-called “deconfliction” procedures.
- Médecins du Monde’s operations and teams have faced repeated forced displacements by order of the Israeli army. In September 2024, 92% of Médecins du Monde’s staff experienced forced displacement. Médecins du Monde’s operations were forcibly relocated up to three times (from Gaza City to Rafah, to the central Gaza Strip, and to Khan Younis). Each time our teams regain a semblance of stability, new displacement orders are issued by Israel, forcing them to start over elsewhere: their lives and our operations.
- In one year, only four trucks carrying Médecins du Monde aid were able to enter the Gaza Strip. The shipments were blocked for one to two months before receiving authorization to enter the enclave. Médecins du Monde had to wait eleven months before Israeli authorities opened a humanitarian corridor from the West Bank, a territory less than 50 km away, where most of the materials needed to address the medical emergency in Gaza are available.
- In the occupied West Bank, all Médecins du Monde teams report a drastic tightening of restrictions on humanitarian access and freedom of movement since October 2023. Faced with the exponential rise in attacks by settlers and the escalation of Israeli military raids against Palestinian communities, populations requiring urgent humanitarian aid are the hardest to reach. Additionally, wait times at Israeli checkpoints result in an average loss of one working day per week for the team operating in the northern part of the territory.
“Most of the events mentioned in this report may constitute violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.” Jean-François Corty, President of Médecins du Monde
“As an occupying power, Israel is required to ensure access to adequate food, medical supplies, shelter, and other essential goods for the survival of the civilian population in occupied territory. Not only are Israeli authorities failing to meet this obligation, but they are also obstructing the lifesaving work of humanitarian actors committed to the survival and basic needs of the Palestinian civilian population,” says Jean-François Corty.
Médecins du Monde is deeply concerned for the safety of the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as for that of its teams. Médecins du Monde has repeatedly called on states with influence over the parties to the conflict to take concrete actions, beyond mere condemnation, to ensure an immediate and lasting ceasefire, full and needs-adapted humanitarian access, and respect for international humanitarian law across the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Photo: MdM France