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Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, has released a report condemning the "apocalyptic" conditions in Gaza caused by Israel's war on the Palestinian enclave. In releasing its report, titled "Gaza: Life in a Death Trap," MSF joins human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch in providing attestations of the devastation faced by Israel's alleged genocide of Palestinian civilians.
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"MSF has witnessed 14 months of repeated attacks on civilians, the dismantling of essential civilian infrastructure including healthcare facilities, and a systematic denial of humanitarian assistance, seemingly underpinning Israel's campaign to unravel the very fabric of society in Gaza," the humanitarian aid group said in the report.
The humanitarian aid group said eight of its staffers have been killed as its teams have endured a documented 41 attacks and violent incidents on them, including air strikes and direct fire on health facilities in Gaza where they were working. Some have even been arrested by Israeli forces.
"Israeli forces have blocked essential items such as food, water and medical supplies from entering the Strip," MSF said in its report. "They have either denied, delayed or instrumentalized humanitarian assistance, allowing insignificant quantities of aid into Gaza with a complete disregard for the actual needs and the level of suffering."
MSF doctors have had to conduct surgery without sufficient anesthesia as civilians die from skin diseases, upper respiratory infections and diarrhea from the lack of hygiene conditions as well as the lack of vaccines, food and water.
"Even if the offensive ended today, its long-term impact would be unprecedented, given the scale of the destruction and the unique challenges of organizing healthcare in Gaza," MSF said. "A whole society needs rebuilding."
MSF said it could take years to treat and rehabilitate those left with amputations and permanent disabilities from the war, on top of the generations of future mental trauma caused by Israel's violence and the loss of their family members and homes.
The humanitarian aid group noted that Israel's long blockade of Gaza, even before Hamas attacked Israel, caused "chronic shortages" in medical supplies and equipment, a situation similarly faced by Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
MSF said Israel's attacks on their staff began as early as October 10, 2023, when Israel hit an MSF clinic in Gaza in an airstrike, followed by shots fired at an MSF shelter on November 14, 2023. An attack on an MSF staff evacuation convoy that month led to the death of two people before what was likely an Israeli tank caused damage and fire to the MSF clinic.
On November 20, 2023, five cars belonging to MSF were destroyed and, the next day, two MSF staff members were killed in a strike on Al-Awda Hospital. An MSF convoy was again targeted a few days later.
Then in December, an MSF surgeon was injured by an Israeli sniper outside of the Al-Awda Hospital, which Israeli forces ultimately took over on December 17, 2023. Hospital workers, including MSF staff members, were stripped and interrogated.
An MSF shelter housing 100 staff members and their families was then shelled in January 2024, causing the death of a member of one staffer's family and the injuries of three other people. In February, an MSF staff member was arrested followed by the shelling of an MSF shelter a few days later, causing the deaths of two family members, among other incidents.
"Every day in July has been one shock after another," Dr. Javid Abdelmoneim said. "[On July 24] I walked in behind a curtain, and there was a little girl alone, dying by herself. And that's the outcome of a collapsed health system: a little 8-year-old girl, dying alone on a trolley in the emergency room. In a functioning health system, she would have been saved."
MSF staffers recounted seeing the dead and wounded "lying everywhere" with the "unbearable" smell of blood filling the air as pregnant women deliver premature babies, some 50,000 of which have not received vaccinations.
