Israel must end its campaign of death and destruction in Gaza

Israeli forces have struck refugee camps in Rafah in recent days, killing dozens and injuring hundreds of people.
The intensified offensive in Rafah has further reduced provision of and access to healthcare, with facilities forced to stop operating.
MSF calls for an immediate end to the offensive in Rafah, and an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
JERUSALEM, PARIS, BRUSSELS, BARCELONA – As the United Nations Security Council meets today after Israel struck tent camps sheltering displaced people in designated “humanitarian zones” in southern Gaza, Palestine, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls for an immediate end to the Rafah offensive and the ongoing atrocities across the Gaza Strip. Israel’s military strategy of repeatedly launching attacks in densely populated areas inevitably leads to the mass killing of civilians.

“Civilians are being massacred. They are being pushed into areas they were told would be safe only to be subjected to relentless airstrikes and heavy fighting,” says Chris Lockyear, MSF Secretary General. “Entire families, made up of dozens of people, are crowded into tents and living in extremely difficult conditions. Over 900,000 people were forcibly displaced again as Israeli forces intensified their offensive on Rafah in early May.”

Today, 21 Palestinians were killed and 64 injured, according to local health authorities, after Israeli forces bombed another tent camp for displaced people in Al-Mawasi, west of Rafah in southern Gaza.

Medical staff and patients at an MSF-supported trauma stabilisation point in Tal Al-Sultan in Rafah were also forced to flee on the night of 27 May, as hostilities in the area intensified, effectively stopping all medical activities in the facility. This forced evacuation of yet another healthcare facility comes 24 hours after Israeli forces carried out an air strike on what they had designated as a “safe zone”, killing at least 49 people and wounding over 250 others.

Staff at the stabilisation point recorded a mass casualty influx of 180 wounded people and 31 dead, with patients suffering from severe burns, shrapnel wounds, fractures, and other traumatic injuries. These patients were stabilised and referred to field hospitals located towards Al-Mawasi, further west, as there are no remaining functional trauma hospitals able to cope with such a mass casualty event. mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq mnq

“All of last night we heard clashes, bombings and rockets being fired. Nobody knows what exactly is happening,” says Dr Safa Jaber, an MSF gynaecologist who is living in the Tal Al-Sultan tent camp with her family. “We are scared for our children, scared for ourselves. We were not expecting this to happen suddenly. Where shall we go? We are struggling to find the basics that every human being needs to stay alive.”

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