MSF Warns of Worsening Humanitarian Conditions in WB Amid Israeli Restrictions
DaysofPal- Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières – MSF) has issued a stark warning about the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the occupied West Bank due to intensified Israeli military operations and unprecedented restrictions on Palestinian movement, which are severely obstructing access to essential healthcare services.
In a statement released Tuesday, the organization called for the immediate halt of what it described as 'Israeli coercive measures' that contribute to forced displacement and de facto annexation policies. These measures include prolonged military presence, movement restrictions, home demolitions, excessive use of force, and denial of access to basic services.
MSF noted that since June 13, Israeli occupation has shut down all major checkpoints and road entrances to Hebron for four consecutive days. As a result, Palestinian civilians — including those seeking urgent medical care — were forced to travel between areas on foot, with many seriously ill patients walking long distances under the threat of being shot or denied passage altogether.
Due to these conditions, the organization suspended mobile clinic operations in Hebron and Nablus, citing inaccessibility and serious security risks posed by intensified military activity. In Jenin and Tulkarem, MSF teams have been forced to reduce their working days, operating only intermittently depending on the presence of Israeli forces in nearby villages. Many patients have had to rely solely on remote consultations via phone.
The statement highlighted that since October 2023, Israeli forces have escalated their use of coercive measures and violent tactics in the West Bank — including strict movement restrictions, frequent raids, and systematic obstruction of access to vital services such as healthcare and education.
Doctors Without Borders concluded by urging the international community to move beyond verbal condemnation and apply meaningful pressure on the Israeli occupation to end the use of excessive force and lift movement restrictions that prevent access to essential services and humanitarian aid. The organization stressed that the continuation of these policies poses a direct threat to civilians' lives and to the overall functionality of the health system in the occupied territories.
Shortlink for this post: https://daysofpalestine.ps/?p=65076
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Days of Palestine
4 hours ago
- Days of Palestine
Gaza Warns of Drug-Contaminated Flour in U.S.-Israeli Centers
DaysofPal— The Gaza Government Media Office has issued a dire warning after the discovery of the powerful narcotic Oxycodone hidden inside flour sacks distributed through so-called U.S.-Israeli aid centers — now referred to by local officials as 'death traps.' Authorities fear the drug may have been deliberately dissolved or ground into the flour, turning basic food into a covert health weapon. 'This elevates the crime to a direct assault on public health,' the office stated. Israel was held fully responsible, with officials accusing it of using narcotics as a weapon to sow addiction, weaken social resilience, and carry out a 'soft' extension of genocide against Palestinians. The statement called this tactic part of a 'dirty war'—manipulating hunger to inject poison into relief supplies—warning it constitutes a war crime and a grave violation of international law. Citizens were urgently advised to avoid these distribution centers, inspect all food thoroughly, and report anything suspicious. The centers, the statement warned, are not relief points, but 'tools of mass entrapment.' Families were urged to educate children about the danger of these sites, and the need for community vigilance as the 'first line of defense.' The media office called on the UN Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court to shut down the centers, which it said have become 'daily instruments of murder and deliberate extermination.' It also demanded the end of the Israeli blockade and a return to legitimate aid routes via UN agencies like UNRWA, free from Israeli interference. Revealing the scale of the disaster, the statement noted that in just one month, these centers have led to 549 deaths, 4,066 injuries, and 39 disappearances among desperate aid seekers — a toll the office called 'unprecedented in the history of humanitarian work.' Shortlink for this post:
Days of Palestine
4 hours ago
- Days of Palestine
Over 100 aid trucks: A drop in the ocean for starved Gaza under Israeli blockade
DaysofPal – More than 100 aid trucks carrying flour, medicine, and emergency food entered the Gaza Strip on Thursday, offering a glimmer of relief to a population facing catastrophic conditions under Israel's blockade. However, humanitarian agencies and local officials stress that the supplies are grossly insufficient to meet the desperate needs of over two million Palestinians. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it had successfully delivered its first medical shipment to Gaza since March 2, describing the effort as severely inadequate. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday on X (formerly Twitter) that the nine trucks that entered Gaza were 'a drop in the ocean.' 'Nine trucks loaded with essential medical supplies, 2,000 blood units, and 1,500 plasma units crossed into the Palestinian territory via the Kerem Shalom crossing without any incidents of looting, despite the dangerous conditions along the way,' Tedros stated. 'These supplies will be distributed to priority hospitals in the coming days,' he added. According to Tedros, the blood and plasma have been delivered to a cold storage facility at the Nasser Medical Complex and will be distributed to hospitals facing severe shortages, especially those overwhelmed by a growing number of casualties, many of them injured at food distribution points. Despite the entry of some aid, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to deepen, with deliberate restrictions, logistical bottlenecks, and systemic chaos undermining relief efforts. UN agencies and Palestinian civil society figures accuse Israeli forces of intentionally obstructing and destabilizing aid delivery. On Wednesday, Palestinian community leaders managed to facilitate the safe arrival of food supplies into warehouses in Gaza City, bypassing chaotic aid scenes. However, the Israeli military swiftly blocked further deliveries, claiming that the warehouses were under the control of Hamas. 'Israel and its army are keen to perpetuate scenes of chaos and crowds of hungry people in front of aid trucks arriving in the Gaza Strip,' a humanitarian worker told local media. 'They are thwarting all attempts to get aid smoothly to distribution warehouses by targeting the personnel responsible for securing them.' Since Israel reauthorized limited aid entry in late May, chaotic scenes and attacks on convoys have frequently prevented aid from reaching northern Gaza, home to many of the most vulnerable. In response, Palestinian clans in Gaza have begun protecting trucks and coordinating their passage to aid agencies, stepping in where international systems have broken down. Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Network of Civil Society Organizations in Gaza, accused Israel on Thursday of deliberately sabotaging aid delivery efforts. 'Only 45 trucks have reached the northern Gaza Strip,' he said, warning that the health sector has collapsed by 85%, with more than 80% of medicines and equipment in short supply. 'Israel's control over aid is a strategy to starve the population. The absence of accountability only encourages it to continue its crimes,' he added. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) criticized the limitations imposed on aid distribution, calling the current system unsustainable and irrational. 'Relying on only four distribution points to deliver humanitarian aid to nearly two million people is illogical,' the agency said in a statement. It added that over 3,000 trucks filled with aid are still waiting at Gaza's border due to ongoing Israeli restrictions and logistical obstacles. Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA's commissioner-general, warned of a rapidly deteriorating situation: 'Two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are facing starvation and thirst, while food and medical aid piles up at the border,' he said. He added that fuel entry has been blocked for more than 100 days, causing a deliberate collapse of Gaza's water infrastructure. According to UNRWA, only 40% of Gaza's drinking water production facilities remain operational. Lazzarini described the situation as a 'man-made drought,' underscoring the gravity of the crisis. Shortlink for this post:
Days of Palestine
4 hours ago
- Days of Palestine
66 Children Dead from Starvation in Gaza
DaysofPal — The number of Palestinian children who have died due to malnutrition in Gaza has risen to 66, the Palestinian Government Media Office reported Saturday, blaming the deaths on Israel's continued closure of border crossings and the prohibition of baby formula, nutritional supplements, and food supplies. In a statement, the office said the worsening humanitarian crisis represents a war crime and a crime against humanity, accusing Israel of deliberately using hunger as a weapon to target civilians—especially children—in violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions. The report condemned what it called an ongoing massacre of Gaza's children, and criticized the shameful silence of the international community, which it said allows thousands of children to suffer starvation, disease, and slow death. The Israeli occupation government, along with its key allies—namely the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany—was held fully responsible not only for the humanitarian disaster, but for active complicity in genocide, the office added. The government media office called on the United Nations, the Arab League, and the Islamic world to take urgent action to pressure Israel to reopen Gaza's crossings and allow the entry of food and medicine immediately, to prevent further loss of life among children and patients. The warning comes as the World Health Organization revealed that an average of 112 children are being admitted daily to Gaza hospitals for malnutrition-related complications, a figure it called deeply alarming. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the situation in Gaza as having 'surpassed the level of catastrophe,' with widespread starvation resulting from intense bombardment and a crushing blockade. With over 2 million Palestinians trapped under siege, Gaza is now experiencing one of the worst hunger crises in modern history, as Israel's blockade continues to prevent critical humanitarian aid from reaching those in need. Shortlink for this post:
