Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“People in Gaza are struggling to survive apocalyptic conditions, but nowhere is safe, no one is spared, and there is no exit from this shattered enclave,” said the humanitarian group’s secretary-general.
The international humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières published a report Thursday detailing how the Israeli military has systematically destroyed conditions of life in the Gaza Strip over the past 14 months by dismantling the enclave’s healthcare system, forcibly displacing most of the population, choking off humanitarian aid, and reducing much of the territory to rubble.
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, noted in its 34-page report that its staffers have witnessed and in some cases been the victims of large-scale “violence unleashed by Israeli forces,” which has “caused physical and mental damage on a scale that would overwhelm any functioning health system, let alone one already decimated by a crushing offensive and a 17-year-long blockade.”
While MSF secretary-general Christopher Lockyear stressed that the group doesn’t “have legal authority to establish intentionality” on the part of the Israeli military, “the signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation—including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment—are undeniable.”
“People in Gaza are struggling to survive apocalyptic conditions, but nowhere is safe, no one is spared, and there is no exit from this shattered enclave,” said Lockyear, who visited Gaza earlier this year. “The recent military offensive in the north is a stark illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza, and we are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped, and bombed.”
“What our medical teams have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict,” he added, “is consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza.”
Even if Israel’s assault ended today, MSF said, “its long-term impacts would be unprecedented, given the scale of the destruction and the extraordinary challenges of providing healthcare across the strip.”
“The cumulative physical toll and mental trauma caused by the extreme violence, loss of family members and homes, repeated forced displacement, and inhumane living conditions will scar generations,” the group added.
MSF’s report, titled Gaza: Life in a Death Trap, finds that Israel’s response to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack “provoked the collapse of Gaza’s already-vulnerable healthcare system” and compromised its ability to provide humanitarian assistance with attacks on aid workers.
Since October 2023, at least eight MSF workers and “many of their family members” have been killed in Gaza, the group said Thursday.
“The pattern of attacks outlined above coupled with its foreseeable consequences and the denial of access to medical care and humanitarian assistance… effectively demonstrate Israeli forces waging a ‘war on the health of Gazans’ that has left the healthcare system in shreds,” the new report states.
The report quotes MSF staffers relaying their horrifying experiences working in Gaza’s barely functional hospitals and clinics without adequate supplies to treat the massive influx of Israeli airstrike victims.
“There are wounded lying everywhere,” Karin Huster, medical referent for MSF in Gaza, said in June. “Bodies are being carried out in plastic bags, the smell of blood is unbearable. Hundreds of people are in the hospital waiting for news of their loved ones injured in the bombardments.”
“Nothing justifies what I saw today,” Huster added. “These children, the three-month-old baby, the 7-year-old, the 12-year-old who died, the 25-year-old man, the 78-year-old woman, all with horrific injuries: Why did they deserve this?”
MSF’s report contributes to a rapidly growing body of research and analysis accusing the Israeli government of perpetrating genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip.
Human Rights Watch said Thursday that “Israeli authorities have deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the population in Gaza by intentionally depriving Palestinian civilians there of adequate access to water, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths.”
“In doing so,” HRW added, “Israeli authorities are responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide.”
Doctors Without Borders said Thursday that “an immediate and sustained cease-fire must be implemented” and the “complete destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza and all things that make up the very fabric of society must stop.”
Additionally, the group urged Israel’s allies to end their unconditional support for the assault on Gaza and demanded an independent investigation into attacks on humanitarian workers.
“Israeli authorities continue to actively block MSF and other humanitarian organizations from providing lifesaving assistance to people trapped under siege and bombardment,” the group said. “States must leverage their influence to alleviate the suffering of people and enable a massive scale-up of humanitarian assistance across the Gaza Strip.”
Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
