Palestine: MSF responds to the Israeli government's smear campaign

Since the end of December, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been the target of a smear and defamation campaign by Israeli authorities, who are disseminating false information about MSF through their official accounts and sponsored online content. These false allegations are also extremely dangerous because they further expose MSF teams to security risks.

MSF formally denies these accusations and wishes to place them within the context of the genocidal war waged by Israel in Gaza since October 2023 and its policy of occupation and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.

For several months, MSF has been engaged in the process of renewing its registration in Israel, which is necessary to operate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. We have completed the necessary administrative procedures and provided the requested information to the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and the Fight Against Antisemitism (MDA), with the exception of sharing the list of Palestinian members of our organization.

In this regard, MSF reiterates its concerns regarding the sharing of information about its Palestinian staff with the Israeli authorities, particularly in a context where medical and humanitarian workers are harassed, arbitrarily detained, attacked, and killed in large numbers. Fifteen MSF staff members have been killed by the Israeli army since October 2023.

The reason given by the Israeli authorities to justify this request is the alleged presence of members of armed groups among MSF staff. However, in Palestine, as in our other areas of operation, it is clearly not in MSF's interest to employ active members of armed groups. This not only goes against the commitments of the organization and its staff, but it would also endanger patients, healthcare facilities, and other members of the organization.

In reality, this demand, and the controversy fueled by the Israeli authorities on this issue, are primarily a pretext and a diversion intended to conceal the highly political nature of the ongoing process of banning NGOs. On the one hand, some organizations that provided lists of their staff have not been re-registered; on the other hand, and by the explicit admission of the Israeli authorities themselves, MSF is now being targeted for its role as a witness and its public stances since October 2023, which the Israeli authorities equate with delegitimizing, or even endangering, the State of Israel.

Our teams bear witness to what they see with their own eyes, and what they themselves endure, in Gaza and the West Bank. Numerous observers, legal experts, human rights organizations, and several United Nations reports also characterize the total destruction of the Gaza Strip, the annihilation of its healthcare system, the siege imposed on the territory, and the famine deliberately engineered by the Israeli army during two years of total war of unprecedented intensity as genocide.

By tarnishing the reputation of NGOs, accusing them of being infiltrated by Hamas, and attempting to downplay their work, Israel aims to justify the unacceptable: further reducing aid to Palestinians, further suffocating the Gaza Strip, forcing Palestinians to face an impossible choice—survive in inhumane conditions or leave Gaza—while eliminating the last witnesses to its genocidal efforts.

With MSF’s registration in Israel expiring on December 31, 2025, we are no longer authorized to deliver medical supplies or maintain our international staff rotations in Gaza.

However, MSF currently continues to manage one-fifth of the approximately 2,300 hospital beds still available in Gaza; one in three births takes place in a hospital where we work. We also provide millions of liters of water daily and deliver critically needed care in Gaza, such as burn treatment.

We wish to continue providing assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and we call on the Israeli authorities to offer acceptable operating conditions that ensure the safety of MSF staff and patients.