Click here if you are having trouble viewing this message.
Dear ,
Here at Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) USA, like so many of you, we are grieving the widespread suffering and death stemming from the eruption of full-scale war in Israel and Gaza. I wanted to reach out to you personally today not just as the Executive Director of MSF-USA, but as someone who is heartbroken by the events of the last few days.
We are calling for all parties to the conflict to ensure the safety of civilians and medical facilities, including ambulances.
As an independent and impartial humanitarian organization, MSF delivers emergency medical care where the needs for our expertise are greatest—regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or politics.
We are also an international movement made up of people from more than 169 nationalities working in more than 70 countries. Many of our staff here at MSF-USA have friends, family, and loved ones in Israel, Gaza, or both for whom we are deeply worried. All of us have colleagues working right now in Gaza delivering lifesaving medical care to people caught in the crossfire.
The current escalation of this conflict is far beyond anything we have seen in recent years.
Hamas launched a major assault across multiple locations in Israel, firing rockets on cities, attacking civilian gatherings, and taking hostages. In response, the Israeli government declared war on Hamas and launched a massive counteroffensive in Gaza, including a barrage of air strikes hitting ambulances, hospitals, refugee camps, and other civilian sites. As I write this, more than 1,000 people have been killed in Israel, and more than 900 people have been killed in Gaza, according to local authorities. Thousands more have been wounded on both sides. The vast majority of the victims of this conflict are civilians, including many women and children. We know these numbers are rising by the hour.
We are sometimes asked why MSF, as an impartial organization, does not currently run medical programs in Israel. This is because we focus on filling the greatest gaps in health care, and Israel has strong emergency and health systems. MSF has offered its support to Israeli hospitals treating high numbers of casualties. Our teams are working in Gaza and the West Bank, as we have for 20 years, providing medical care and supporting a health system that urgently lacks both medical personnel and supplies.
It is for these reasons that our reporting is focused on what our patients and staff are directly witnessing and experiencing on the ground in Gaza, where hospitals are becoming overwhelmed and experiencing shortages of drugs, medical supplies, and fuel for generators.
Since Saturday, October 7, MSF has treated more than 50 people in Al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza, and we are donating medical supplies to hospitals and health facilities to respond to medical needs. Our teams have also been caught in the middle of the fighting. In southern Gaza, Indonesian hospital and an ambulance in front of Nasser hospital, both supported by MSF, were hit by Israeli forces, killing a nurse and ambulance driver and injuring several others.
As this conflict continues to evolve rapidly, MSF will adapt our response. We remain committed to our principles of impartiality and independence—an essential part of our identity that allows us to deliver humanitarian medical care in conflict zones around the world.
We reaffirm that MSF remains guided by one goal: To provide medical care to those in need with empathy and compassion.
Sincerely,
Avril Benoît
Executive Director
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières USA
This email was sent from the U.S. section of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and exclusion from health care.
You are receiving this message because [email protected] is subscribed to the UPDATES FROM THE FIELD list.
Manage Preferences Unsubscribe
Please do not email any credit card information to Doctors Without Borders as it is not a secure payment method. If you wish to make a donation, please click here.
40 Rector Street, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10006 | Phone: 212-679-6800
Make a donation: Toll-free at 1-888-392-0392 seven days a week Donate Online | Home Page | Privacy Policy
