Explosive weapons cause majority of war-wounds in Gaza based on 2024 data
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Today, the medical journal The Lancet publishes an analysis of more than 200,000 consultations carried out by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in 2024 in six health facilities in the Gaza Strip. The study indicates that 83% of care related to injuries caused by violence was due to explosive weapons (bombs and grenades).
These weapons were designed to be used in open battlefield and are increasingly used in urban settings.
Explosive weapons are indiscriminate, causing complex injuries due to blast, fragmentation and heat. In two hospitals we observed nearly 60% of the injuries were related to explosive weapons’.
— Meinie Nicolai, former emergency coordinator in Gaza.
The makeshift shelters in which the population is forced to live offer little to no protection against these weapons.
The data analysis finds a very high infection rate in wounds of more than 18% in patients seeking care for the first time. A result of the unhygienic living conditions after multiple forced displacements.
The lack of protection of civilians is clear: 29.6% of all consultations on wounds are on children below 15 years and 32% of the consultations are on women. This lack of protection is also a reality for health care workers, 1580 including 12 MSF colleagues have been killed since October ’23. And not a single hospital in Gaza is fully functional.
These indiscriminate attacks must stop.
The human carnage and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza are deliberate. The large use of explosive weapons is part of that. Humanitarian aid is weaponized and blocked. Healthcare services are targeted daily.
MSF reiterates our call for an immediate and standing ceasefire. MSF calls for the protection of civilians and respect for essential medical and humanitarian work. MSF urges Israel to directly allow and protect, impartial and unrestricted medical aid.