The Doctors Without Borders (also known as Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF) team leader in Gaza has slammed the lack of action since famine was declared. In press remarks he said:
There are no expectations regarding what the UN will do after declaring famine in Gaza. Nothing has changed—people here are still starving.
Israel have manufactured an entirely avoidable famine in Gaza. Palestinian people have been warning for months on end that famine is coming. Now that states have acknowledged what UN and industry experts have also been warning against, nothing has happened.
In uncharacteristically blunt remarks, UN secretary general Anotónio Guterres said the causes of the famine are undisputed:
It is a man-made disaster, a moral indictment – and a failure of humanity itself.
Famine is not about food; it is the deliberate collapse of the systems needed for human survival.
However, the latest research from MSF further demonstrates that unless Israel is stopped in their starvation of Palestine, nothing will change. Gaza will continue to starve.
Doctors Without Borders say Israel is ‘choking Gaza’
The report from Doctors Without Borders is a frank but haunting expert view into the horror that Israel has unleashed on Gaza since October 2023.
The report’s authors refer to Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, stating:
I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.
And, to Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) major general Ghassan Alian:
Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell.
In direct response to these genocidal remarks, MSF write:
These statements constituted a prima facie indication of intent to violate the prohibition of collective punishment under international humanitarian law. The subsequent blockade has had a devastating impact on the delivery of essential supplies, making it very difficult to provide effective humanitarian assistance.
They explain that:
Throughout this period the people whom MSF was attempting to assist remained trapped in Gaza, unable to flee — subjected to a form of collective torture in the open air, broadcast to the world by global media despite the Israeli authorities’ restrictions on foreign reporters.
Since October 2023, Israel has killed 9 members of Doctors Without Borders. Even so, the group acknowledge that:
Conditions were very harsh for MSF international staff, but for Palestinian staff the situation was simply unimaginable. The vast majority lost at least one, and in some cases many, family members and/or close friends. Most also lost their homes, and many received repeated evacuation orders.
Aid workers have to operate in impossible conditions. And, they are not miracle workers. Until the international order that has condemned the famine intervene to protect aid workers, force Israel to allow aid in (and fulfil its international obligations), the famine will continue. There are no amount of political condemnations that can change the material reality of aid workers in Gaza.
And, as Doctors Without Borders acknowledge, Palestinian emergency workers are beyond overwhelmed and overstretched.
Impossible checkpoints
MSF meticulously lay out the elaborate and impossible checkpoints Israel has put into place for basic life-saving equipment. Between October 2023 and January 2025, Doctors Without Borders have delivered nearly a thousand tonnes of medical and logistical supplies into Gaza. However, many of the supplies came late if they arrived at all. For example:
Kits containing blankets, tents and thermal clothing, intended to help the population endure a harsh and rainy winter, were delivered six months late, in spring, when they were no longer needed. Critical materials for water treatment never arrived. Lacking necessary equipment, MSF teams had to improvise by manufacturing items locally using inadequate materials.
Supplies were so scarce that MSF have had to carry out medical procedures in abject conditions:
Medical procedures requiring highly specific equipment, medicines and other products were, at times, carried out under conditions that would be shocking to any medical professional: from treating large numbers of crush injuries and burns with extremely limited supplies to amputating limbs without anaesthesia.
They refer to the “arbitrariness and inefficiency” of Israeli procedures for managing the entry of essential supplies. If lists from Israeli authorities of banned items were ever communicated, their contents would be changed arbitrarily without notice or explanation. This also meant that entire shipments would be rejected if they contained one singular item that was banned.
Many items were banned if Israeli authorities believed that Hamas were able to repurpose supplies. Doctors Without Borders write:
The Israeli authorities told MSF staff that in the past, Hamas had repurposed metal to construct tunnel structures. MSF was not in a position to assess the potential military significance of certain goods for Palestinian armed groups. However, in a region where metal is abundant in the rubble of destroyed buildings, it was hard to understand why small pieces of metal such as scalpels could be problematic.
One MSF supply co-ordinator said:
I’ve never understood why crutches, printer ink or spare parts for a desalination plant aren’t immediately approved. In my line of work, I’d never be allowed to take five months just to approve those items.
The report is also careful to characterise looting of supplies:
In a situation marked by extreme need and desperation, where even the most basic food requirements are unmet, it is understandable that people may feel compelled to take what their families need. However, much of this theft took the form of robbery from vehicles apparently carried out by organised groups.
Inevitably, areas that are under “full control of the IDF” still see organised groups carrying out looting. In such a situation, as with the IDF looking away when Israeli settlers harass Palestinians, Israeli authorities are enabling the chaos of aid sites.
Condemnation isn’t enough
The expert commentary from Doctors Without Borders workers and the findings of the report show a more accurate understanding of how and why Israel has unleashed famine on Gaza. Political agreements or official condemnations from state governments mean less than nothing. Israel has kept Palestine under siege long before October 2023. Now, several years into a genocide, famine is undoubtedly being used as a weapon of war.
It is evidently not an issue of scarcity, but instead of Israel blocking supplies, throttling aid, and as the MSF write, choking Gaza.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.