Palestine: update on requests from Israeli authorities regarding MSF staff information
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To avoid being forced to suspend its operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory from 1 March 2026, following unreasonable demands to hand over personal information about our staff, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has informed Israeli authorities that, as an exceptional measure, we are prepared to share a defined list of Palestinian and international staff names, subject to clear parameters with staff safety at its core.
This position follows extensive discussions with our Palestinian colleagues and will only be done with the express agreement of the individuals concerned. MSF communicated this position in a letter to the Israeli authorities, solely with the aim of being able to continue providing critical medical care.
After months of engagement with the Israeli authorities and with governments involved in these discussions, during which we have explored all other options, our priority remains the safety of our staff while continuing to provide independent essential healthcare for Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza in dire need.
Israel has knowingly given MSF and our Palestinian colleagues an impossible choice; either we provide this information or abandon the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who need vital medical care.
We have so far refused to hand over this list as we are legitimately concerned about providing such information in a context where 1,700 health staff have been killed, including 15 MSF workers, since October 2023. We would share this information with the expectation that it won’t negatively affect MSF staff or our medical humanitarian operations.
Now is a time when Palestinians across Gaza and the West Bank desperately need organisations like MSF to ramp up humanitarian assistance. The situation across Gaza and the West Bank remains catastrophic and the humanitarian needs of millions of people are immense. People need much more support, not less. Since 1 January 2026, all arrivals of our international staff into Gaza have been denied and all our supplies have been blocked.
Despite our concern that these administrative blockages form part of broader efforts to undermine, discredit, and defame humanitarian action, we continue to seek dialogue with the Israeli authorities, to reassert the principles of independent humanitarian aid, and ultimately continue our medical mission for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who must not be abandoned in their time of greatest need.
In Gaza, in 2025, MSF alone carried out nearly 800,000 consultations, treated more than 100,000 trauma cases and distributed more than 700 million litres of water. Today, we operate in six hospitals, support seven health centres and four clinics, and manage two field hospitals. Currently, MSF supports one in five hospital beds in Gaza and one third of all births. We meet the daily water needs of more than 635,000 people, or 30% of Gaza's population.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)