MSF’s report: the health crisis in Gaza is Israel’s fault

“The policies being implemented in Gaza, as well as developments in the West Bank, point to a plan to colonise Palestine through occupation.” Dr Javid Abdelmoneim, international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, shines a spotlight on “Israel’s genocide in Gaza” and the “ethnic cleansing in Palestine”, and denounces the ongoing complicity of world leaders who allow Israel to continue its genocidal campaign. Abdelmoneim, who worked as an emergency doctor in the Gaza Strip in 2024, highlights the violence suffered by Palestinians and the pressure that the advance of the Israeli front line is placing on the 2 million inhabitants, who now live in just one-third of the territory, in a state of extreme overcrowding, with dire sanitary conditions, and exposed to respiratory infections, skin diseases and epidemics. But the situation is also desperate in the West Bank. ‘The Israeli government, the army and state-backed settlers have accelerated the process of ethnic cleansing, land expropriation, territorial fragmentation and economic strangulation, further eroding the presence and stability of the Palestinian people.’ Just last Sunday, from the Yad Mordechai area in southern Israel, the ‘‘March of the Thousands’ had set off from the Yad Mordechai area, in southern Israel. This demonstration, organised by the Nachala settlers and heading towards Gaza, was supported by 28 ministers and MPs from the governing coalition, under the slogan ‘After 21 years, we’re going home’. The IDF had declared the area a closed military zone to prevent attempts to enter the Strip, but some of the demonstrators are reported to have crossed or bypassed at least four checkpoints.

Meanwhile, the violence continues. According to the Wafa news agency, which has gathered testimonies from medical staff, three Palestinians were killed yesterday in an Israeli attack south-west of the al-Mawasi area, in Khan Younis, whilst another Palestinian died from injuries sustained in an attack in Gaza City. The IDF, meanwhile, has reported that over the weekend it eliminated a terrorist from Islamic Jihad and another from the Salah Sabhi Salah Qatrawi organisation. Last night, casualties were also reported in the West Bank: as reported by Wafa, two men aged 26 and 53 were reportedly shot dead during an attack by settlers east of Ramallah. And it is precisely this escalation in settler violence, according to a report by Save the Children, that is causing the displacement of more than a thousand Palestinian children, ‘with serious consequences for their education, safety and psychological well-being’.

Following the death of its leader, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed two years ago, and against a backdrop of internal divisions, Hamas renewed its leadership yesterday, electing – after two rounds of voting – Khalil al-Hayya. Having survived the Israeli attack in Doha, in which one of his sons was killed, the 65-year-old – considered close to Iran – is the leading figure of the movement’s most hardline faction.