Gaza has been under relentless bombardment and attack. Last Saturday (18 Nov), an MSF staff’s relative died and another one was injured in an attack on an MSF convoy trying to evacuate 137 people - the Palestinian staff members of the medical organisation and their families. MSF condemns in the strongest terms this deliberate attack and calls again to urgently allow the evacuation of its staff, as well as of thousands of other people trapped by fighting and living in extremely dire conditions in northern Gaza.
At 9:00 am local time that day, an MSF convoy composed of five cars, all clearly marked with MSF identification, left the MSF premises including guesthouse, office, outpatient clinic located near Al-Shifa hospital. The convoy was transporting 137 MSF Palestinian staff members and their families who have been trapped under fire because of ongoing fighting since 11 November. Among the people in the convoy, 65 were children. The MSF vehicles headed to southern Gaza for a safer place for the staff and their families.
MSF had informed both parties to the conflict of this movement, and the convoy also went through the itinerary indicated by the Israeli army and reached Salah Al Deen street, along with other civilians trying to leave the area.
Despite the information shared with the Israeli army, the convoy was not allowed to cross the last checkpoint near Wadi Gaza for hours. Shots were later heard by our staff, pushing them to turn back out of fear and to head back to MSF premises, located around 7 kms from the checkpoint. On their way back, the convoy was attacked in Al-Wehda street near the junction of Said Al A’as Street, near the MSF office - two of the MSF cars were deliberately hit.
The situation in the whole Gaza Strip remains tense. Last Sunday (19 Nov), following an Israeli airstrike about 1km away from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the South, where MSF teams are working, 122 patients arrived at the hospital within minutes. While 70 people were dead upon arrival, dozens of injured, including many children, arrived in critical conditions with severe burns.
In the burn unit, where MSF works, surgeons are doing around 10 burn surgeries a day. But the hospital is overflowing with hundreds of patients with burns who must wait to be operated.
“The medical needs are huge and MSF is ready to scale up its activities, but we need basic guarantees of safety and unrestricted access of medical and humanitarian supplies into Gaza. A ceasefire is a must, now more than ever, to stop the bloodshed that is happening”, says Christophe Garnier, an MSF Project Coordinator in southern Gaza.