Since October 2023, the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip has been systematically dismantled. According to OCHA, out of 36 hospitals in Gaza, Palestine, only 17 remained partially functional by early December 2024, with the other 19 closed, while over 1,000 health workers have been killed.

Each medical centre or humanitarian delivery system has been or is being destroyed, to be replaced by less effective, improvised options. There is no telling what the indirect human cost in deaths and long-term injuries will be as a result of the denial of aid and treatment.

Staff and patients from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have had to leave 17 different health structures and endured around 50 violent incidents from October 2023 to December 2024 in Gaza and the West Bank, which includes airstrikes damaging hospitals and/or their vicinity, tanks being fired at agreed deconflicted shelters, ground offensives into medical centres, and convoys fired upon. MSF has yet to receive accountability or admission of responsibility for the killing, maiming, or dehumanisation of our staff and patients.