Six months of bombing and an extreme lack of humanitarian aid have created a malnutrition crisis in Gaza. Children, pregnant women, and elderly people are most at risk. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff are working in hospitals and clinics to provide medical care and secure the flow of essential supplies, but the needs are immense.
Three to four children occupy a single bed in our pediatric wards. Doctors are forced to choose between treating children with gunshot wounds and children who are malnourished. And at least 20 children have recently died from extreme malnutrition and dehydration. Urgent action is needed now.
As malnutrition spikes in Gaza amid six months of war, rush your gift today so MSF can continue our work saving lives in places other organizations can’t or won’t go. |
| Here’s the latest on what our teams in Gaza are seeing on the ground—and why we need your support to continue our lifesaving work: |
Each truck of humanitarian aid is submitted to screening, and if a single item is rejected, the entire cargo must be returned to Egypt. With no official list of restricted items, MSF has consistently been denied the import of various essential supplies and medical equipment.
“Every second that supplies are delayed, and every time an item is blocked, there is more devastating and unacceptable suffering,” says Lisa Macheiner, MSF project coordinator in Gaza. “If people are not killed by bombs, they are suffering from food and water deprivation and dying from lack of medical care.” |
| Health care facilities have been subjected to evacuation orders and been repeatedly attacked for the past six months. Providing health care is becoming virtually impossible in Gaza, as no place, not even hospitals or health facilities, are safe from bombs. |
| People with war-related trauma injuries and burns need continued care—which is nearly impossible to access right now.
MSF staff are providing physiotherapy, which is essential for patients with severe injuries to avoid losing the functionality of a limb, but many patients cannot safely reach care. Here, MSF physiotherapist Mia conducts physiotherapy with a six-year-old boy in Gaza. |
| An estimated 50,000 women in Gaza are pregnant. The health system has collapsed, and so many must give birth in tents and public spaces. Staff at MSF-supported Emirati hospital provide maternity and delivery care but are forced to discharge mothers hours after giving birth because of the surge of needs. |
| MSF staff continue to do their jobs at great personal risk. Airstrikes regularly hit health clinics, including MSF-supported Al Shaboura clinic which was hit on March 27. MSF teams continue to provide humanitarian and medical care in Gaza where possible, including surgery, maternal care, mental health support, and water distribution.
The needs, however, continue to rise. |
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!["It's a trade off between beds for the [malnourished] kids and trauma patients, which is obviously a really harrowing decision for anybody" - Christopher Lockyear MSF Secretary General, from Gaza](https://image.e.doctorswithoutborders.org/lib/fe37157075640779761c75/m/1/ee09a26a-3fbd-404d-ae80-c15da24528eb.png)
