Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip in a report on the 14-month conflict released on Thursday.
The report documented 41 attacks on MSF staff, including airstrikes on medical facilities and direct fire on humanitarian convoys.
The NGO said it had been forced to evacuate hospitals and health centres in 17 cases. Christopher Lockyear, MSF’s secretary general, said:
“We are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped and bombed.”
Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations that its campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide.
The MSF report, titled “Gaza: Life in a Death Trap,” said the blockade of the Palestinian territory has led to a sharp decline in humanitarian aid, with only 37 lorries allowed to deliver daily in October 2024, compared to 500 before the conflict began.
According to MSF, there has been an “extremely violent” offensive in the north of the territory since early October, particularly in Jabalia camp.
NGO medical teams have carried out more than 27,500 consultations and 7,500 surgical operations in one year. They note the rapid spread of disease among a population that was 90 per cent internally displaced and living in appalling conditions.
The organisation also condemned the blocking of medical evacuations, as Israel only granted 1.6 per cent of requests between May and September 2024. Lockyear also said:
“What our medical teams have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict is consistent with the descriptions provided by a growing number of legal experts and organisations that conclude that genocide is taking place in Gaza.”
The report called for an immediate ceasefire and the lifting of the blockade to allow for the mass delivery of humanitarian aid.
MSF calles to prevent genocide in Gaza
MSF also called on “states, especially Israel’s closest allies, to end their unconditional support for Israel and fulfil their obligations to prevent genocide in Gaza.”
In a separate report released on Thursday, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Israel of committing “acts of genocide” in the Gaza Strip by deliberately restricting Palestinians’ access to water.
At least 45,097 people, most of them women and children, have died as a result of Israel’s war in Gaza, according to figures from the territory’s Ministry of Health that the United Nations considers reliable.
MSF is an international independent, non-profit, non-profit medical humanitarian organisation that provides emergency medical assistance to people affected by military conflicts, famine, epidemics, forced migration, and natural disasters in more than 70 countries around the world.
