The health system in Gaza has been decimated. Rush support

Seven months of war have pushed Palestinian civilians further and further down the Gaza Strip. Nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are now crammed into the city of Rafah, at the southernmost tip of Gaza.

Now, approximately 100,000 people are being forced to flee parts of Rafah following the Israeli army’s recent evacuation orders. Israeli forces sent tanks into the city and say they have seized control of the border. An escalation of the ongoing military operations in Rafah would be catastrophic and crush an already fragile humanitarian response. At Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), we fear for the lives of civilians in Gaza, including our medical humanitarian teams and patients.

Living conditions all over Gaza are already extremely precarious, with limited food, water, and shelter and even more limited access to medical care. The few health care structures available will not be able to handle an influx of patients while also providing routine medical care like deliveries and chronic diseases. Providing medical and humanitarian aid has been hugely challenging and will only continue to get more difficult. An immediate, sustained ceasefire is the first step towards addressing the immense needs of the people in Gaza.

Your support is urgently needed as we continue to respond to emergencies in Gaza and around the world. From the escalating violence in Haiti to the malnutrition crisis in Sudan, our lifesaving work in more than 70 countries worldwide would not be possible without your support. Rush your gift today, and it will be put right to work providing care to patients around the globe.

MSF has been responding to the drastic escalation of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza throughout the conflict. We are currently trying to assess ways of scaling up our activities to respond to ever-growing needs in different areas of the Gaza Strip and are considering establishing two new field hospitals in Deir Al-Balah in the Middle Area of Gaza. However, given this escalation, MSF has begun to discharge patients from Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital and is suspending its activities at Al-Shaboura Clinic until further notice. MSF will be handing over its activities at Emirati Hospital to the Ministry of Health on May 8 and will relocate its staff to Nasser Hospital to continue to support maternity care in a safer area. This movement was planned before the recent evacuation orders.

"People here have been displaced time and again by the war and are living in tents and makeshift shelters that can barely withstand the elements, let alone bombs and airstrikes,” said Avril Benoît, Executive Director of MSF USA. “Rafah is the major hub of health care services and humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip—and a critical area for the delivery of humanitarian assistance given the crossing. Attacking this area means cutting off the lifelines of people who’ve lost everything. Our humanitarian staff and patients are terrified.”

Medical facilities, staff, and patients should always be protected, and access to hospitals unhindered. Civilians should never be a target in war. We continue to call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire.

MSF USA is entirely funded by independent donors and takes no US government funding. With your support, we can remain independent and impartial and mobilize quickly to save lives when an emergency strikes—sometimes within a matter of hours. Your generous unrestricted support means we don't have to wait to write grants or face red tape before we respond.

Rush in your donation so we can be there for patients caught in crises like in Gaza and around the world.

Thank you for your commitment to saving lives. We couldn’t do this work without you.  

Sincerely,
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières USA

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent, impartial medical humanitarian organization. We provide medical care where the needs are greatest, regardless of race, gender, religion, or politics. Our teams are working in Gaza and the West Bank, as we have for over 20 years. We are providing medical care and supporting a health system that urgently lacks medical personnel and supplies. We call on all parties to the conflict to ensure the safety of civilians, medical facilities, and health care workers.

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