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無國界醫生 Médecins Sans Frontières
Field News

Gaza: Three years of destroying the conditions for life

08 Oct 20266 Read Time
MSB173278 Medium

Over three years, Israel’s military campaign has devastated Gaza’s health system, while Palestinians have faced mass displacement, starvation, repeated attacks, growing restrictions and the destruction of essential infrastructure and access to healthcare. These images document the widespread suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, and how the conditions for providing and receiving healthcare have progressively deteriorated.

© Mahmud Hams/AFP
7 October 2023 – People standing on a rooftop watch as a ball of fire and smoke rises above a building in Gaza City during an Israeli air strike that hit the Palestine Tower building.


Following Hamas’ attacks on 7 October 2023, Israel launched a massive military offensive across the Gaza Strip, causing widespread and systematic destruction of essential civilian infrastructure. Three years later, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 173,000 wounded, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The cumulative physical toll and mental trauma caused by extreme violence, the loss of family members, homes and memories, repeated forced displacement, and inhumane living conditions will scar generations.

 

© MSF

19 October 2023 –MSF nurse Mohammed Hawajari applies a dressing to a young boy at the MSF Burns Clinic after he suffered burns from an airstrike.

 

Over the past three years, MSF teams have provided Palestinians with surgical care, wound and burn care, malnutrition screening and treatment, maternal and paediatric care, and other vital services at a time of urgent need. MSF currently runs or supports four hospitals, while supporting four general healthcare centres and working in five clinics and four medical points, both in the northern and southern part of the Strip.

 

© MSF

20 November 2023 – Five clearly marked MSF vehicles parked outside an MSF clinic in Gaza City were destroyed during an intervention by Israeli forces.

 

Three years later, attacks on healthcare facilities and restrictions on the entry of vital supplies have severely constrained the provision of medical care. Hospital generators, ambulances, water pumps and water trucks depend on engine oil and spare parts to keep running. Yet Israeli authorities continue to block their entry into Gaza, disrupting services that people rely on to survive.

 

© MSF

21 November 2023 – Board at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, following a strike that killed three doctors, including two MSF staff members.

 

Nearly 2,300 health and humanitarian workers have been killed since the 7 October, including 15 of our MSF colleagues.

© MSF

12 December 2023 – Medical staff deal with massive influx of trauma patients at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

 

Nasser had become one of the few remaining hospitals able to provide emergency surgical care in southern Gaza. Hospitals and health facilities came under extreme pressure, as wounded patients arrived in unprecedented numbers while thousands found shelter inside and around them.  

© MSF

13 March 2024 – A room inside Nasser Hospital, after weeks of fighting and a siege that culminated in Israeli forces entering the facility.

 

Three years on, WHO reported that 94% of hospitals in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed, with only 19 of the Strip’s 36 hospitals still operational, many providing only limited services.

 

© MSF

 

13 May 2024 - Displaced Palestinians in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip carry their belongings as they leave following an evacuation order by the Israeli army.

 

During the first months of the Israeli military offensive many families were displaced repeatedly, particularly from the northern and middle areas of the Strip. In early 2024 Rafah was already hosting about 1.5 million people who had sought refuge there. Subsequently the Israeli forces heavily destroyed also Rafah. 

 

© Moises Saman/Magnum Photos 

27 August 2024 – Karam, 17, from Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza, receives physiotherapy at MSF’s Reconstructive Surgery Hospital in Amman.

 

Medical evacuations from Gaza remain extremely limited. WHO estimates that 18,500 patients need specialised medical care that is unavailable there but are not allowed to leave. More than 900 patients have already died while waiting to be evacuated for treatment.

 

© Ibrahim Nofal

7 November 2024 – A view of overcrowded tents in the Attar area of Khan Younis, South Gaza, where displaced families live in cramped conditions with limited access to basic items, such as water, food and clothing.

 

Since 7 October, 82 per cent of structures in Gaza have been damaged, with two thirds of them destroyed according to UNRWA. Thousands are forced to live in dangerous conditions with limited access to clean water and toilets. Nearly 90 per cent of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, including desalination plants, boreholes, pipelines and sewage systems.

 

© Nour Alsaqqa/MSF 

1 February 2025 – Children hold empty pots at a community kitchen in northern Gaza.

 

After months of the Israeli government’s siege and restrictions on food and aid, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) formally confirmed famine in Gaza on 22 August 2025. MSF teams identified the first cases of child malnutrition in January 2024. Between then and March 2026, MSF admitted 4,950 children under 15 for acute malnutrition, 98 per-cent of whom were under five, while 3,482 pregnant and breastfeeding women were enrolled in outpatient nutrition programmes. Three years on, malnutrition has relatively stabilised amid the so-called ceasefire, but the situation remains extremely fragile, with people facing restricted access to food and essential supplies.

© MSF 

25 July 2025 – Palestinians gather at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution site in Netzarim, putting their lives at risk to receive food.

 

Israeli authorities dismantled the UN-led humanitarian aid distribution system and replaced it by GHF in areas under Israeli military control and “secured” by private American armed contractors. Between 7 June and 24 July 2025, MSF health centres near GHF sites received 1,380 injured people, including 28 dead bodies, and treated 174 people with gunshot wounds. One year on, MSF still treats people that received life-changing injuries and trauma at GFH sites.

 

© Motasem Abu Aser/MSF 

9 October 2025 – A displaced mother and daughter prepare a meal over an open fire inside their makeshift tent in Khan Younis.

 

OCHA estimates that 90 per cent of Gaza’s population has been displaced multiple times. Since October 2025, Gaza became increasingly fragmented by an unclearly marked and constantly shifting military-controlled “yellow line”, which divided areas under different levels of Israeli military control. The Israeli military is estimated to fully control 58.9 per cent of the Strip, severely restricting movement and access for civilians and humanitarian actors. When the unmarked buffer zone, known as the “orange line”, is also taken into account, the area affected rises to an estimated 64.9 per cent of Gaza.

 

© Nour Alsaqqa/MSF 

23 March 2026 – An MSF physiotherapist fits a 3D-printed mask on Joud, a four-year-old burn patient. These customised masks help prevent scarring and loss of facial function, but their production is difficult as access to necessary supplies is restricted.

 

Since 1 January 2026, MSF’s registration in Israel has been withdrawn, preventing international MSF staff from entering Gaza and blocking MSF supplies from entering the territory. All international staff were required to leave by the end of February. The Israeli authorities had ordered 37 aid organisations, including MSF, to cease operations in Gaza and the West Bank by 31 March. MSF has continued its work through 1,500 Palestinian staff registered with the Palestinian Authority, with international staff supporting the response remotely from Amman.

 

© Nour Alsaqqa/MSF 

20 April 2026 – A staff member at Al-Helou Hospital in Gaza City checks on a low-weight newborn lying in an incubator.

 

Between late 2024 and early 2026, during a period of severe restrictions on food and humanitarian aid, an analysis of MSF medical data found higher rates of prematurity and mortality among babies born to mothers affected by malnutrition during pregnancy, as well as high rates of miscarriage.

 

© Nour Alsaqqa/MSF

2 June 2026 – Doaa, a physiotherapist, heats a sheet of thermoplastic material to mould it into a custom splint at MSF’s Al-Zawayda field hospital in Gaza.

 

Despite the so-called ceasefire, Palestinians continue to face daily violence and injuries. Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has left an estimated 43,000 people with life-changing injuries, with more than 50,000 requiring long-term rehabilitation. The Ministry of Health has documented approximately 6,000 amputations, including 1,500 children. Rehabilitation services are severely overstretched, while specialised equipment remanins extremely difficult to obtain.

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