Repeated Israeli military attacks on Palestinian civilians over the last 14 months, the dismantling of the health care system and other essential infrastructure, the suffocating siege, and the systematic denial of humanitarian assistance are destroying the conditions of life in Gaza, Palestine, according to a new Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) report, Gaza: Life in a death trap. 

MSF is urgently calling on all parties, once again, for an immediate ceasefire to save lives and enable the flow of humanitarian aid. Israel must stop its targeted and indiscriminate attacks against civilians, and its allies must act without delay to protect the lives of Palestinians and uphold the rules of war.

“People in Gaza are struggling to survive apocalyptic conditions, but nowhere is safe, no one is spared, and there is no exit from this shattered enclave,” said Christopher Lockyear, MSF secretary general, who visited Gaza earlier this year.

“The recent military offensive in the north is a stark illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza, and we are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped, and bombed,” said Lockyear. “What our medical teams have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict is consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza.”

“While we don’t have legal authority to establish intentionality, the signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation – including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment – are undeniable,” Lockyear adds.

Israeli forces have on numerous occasions prevented essential items such as food, water, and medical supplies from entering the Strip, as well as blocked, denied, and delayed humanitarian assistance. Some 1.9 million people—90 percent of the entire population of the Strip—have been forcibly displaced, many forced to move multiple times.

Fewer than half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partially functional, and the health care system lies in ruins. During the one-year period covered by the report – from October 2023 to October 2024 – MSF staff alone have endured 41 attacks and violent incidents, including airstrikes, shelling, and violent incursions in health facilities; direct fire on MSF shelters and convoys; and arbitrary detention of colleagues by Israeli forces. MSF medical personnel and patients have been forced to evacuate hospitals and health facilities on 17 separate occasions, often literally running for their lives. 

MSF had repeated its call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire. The total destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza must stop. MSF is also calling for immediate and safe access to northern Gaza, to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and medical supplies to hospitals. While MSF continues to provide lifesaving care in central and southern Gaza, it calls on Israel to end its siege on the territory and open vital land borders, including the Rafah crossing, to enable a massive scale-up of humanitarian and medical aid.

The MSF report notes that even if the Israeli military offensive on Gaza ended today, its long-term impacts would be unprecedented, given the scale of the destruction and the extraordinary challenges of providing health care across the Strip.