Hundreds of Palestinian civilians are killed every day in Gaza: it is the responsibility of governments to demand an urgent ceasefire.
Every day, women, children, internally displaced persons, patients, humanitarian and health personnel are killed by the relentless bombings hitting the Gaza Strip. 772 families have lost at least two of their members. 67% of those killed are women and children.
Médecins du Monde calls for firm, urgent and unconditional diplomatic intervention to put an end to the massacre of civilians.
On 31 October, intense airstrikes hit the Jabaliya refugee camp, completely destroying a neighbourhood of 30 residential buildings. The death toll stands at 50, and many people are still trapped under the rubble.
A very large number of injured people cannot be cared for as hospitals have reached an unprecedented level of devastation. Health personnel are now forced to perform operations without anaesthesia, on the hospital floors. Caregivers are working in catastrophic hygiene and fatigue conditions and are facing a critical shortage of resources, worsened by the total blockade and the largely insufficient supply of humanitarian aid. For three weeks, this has been a daily reality in the Gaza Strip, where over 8,525 people have been killed to date.
International humanitarian law (IHL) considers the aerial bombing of targets located in areas sheltering numerous civilians as an illegitimate and indiscriminate attack. The principle of proportionality also implies that loss of life cannot be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage expected from the attack. The continuation of hostilities in a context of high population density, where the population cannot flee, and at the heart of a humanitarian and public health catastrophe, is condemned by IHL.
Médecins du Monde is appalled by the lack of firm, urgent and unconditional intervention from the international community while IHL is constantly violated.
Médecins du Monde urgently calls for the protection of civilians and for third-party states to assume their responsibilities under international law: they must exert all possible pressure on the parties to the conflict to achieve a ceasefire and guarantee full, safe and unhindered humanitarian access.