Gaza: Thousands of patients to lose assistance after Israeli ban on MSF

In a statement on Tuesday, MSF, one of the largest medical organizations operating in Gaza, warned of a looming humanitarian disaster after Israel announced the suspension of its work along with many other international aid groups at the beginning of the new year.

MSF currently provides medical services to nearly half a million people in Gaza, in addition to supplying water and lifesaving support. The organization stressed that halting its operations would be catastrophic given the near‑total destruction of the health system in the Strip.

“With Gaza’s health system already destroyed, independent and experienced humanitarian organizations losing access to respond would be a disaster for Palestinians,” MSF said.

“MSF calls on the Israeli authorities to ensure that INGOs can maintain and continue their impartial and independent response in Gaza. The already restricted humanitarian response cannot be further dismantled.”

MSF affirmed that if its permits were revoked during 2026, a wide segment of Gaza’s population would be deprived of medical care, clean water, and other essential services.

Pascale Coissard, the emergency coordinator for MSF in Gaza, said the organization’s teams treated hundreds of thousands of patients over the past year, carrying out nearly 800,000 medical consultations in 2025.

She added that MSF staff also handled more than 100,000 injury cases and supplied hundreds of millions of liters of water to residents, underscoring the scale of the organization’s humanitarian role in the Strip.

One of the reasons MSF has been reluctant to comply with the Israeli registration rules is for fear of security for their staff on the ground as Israeli forces already killed many international humanitarian workers in Gaza.

MSF fears that its staff could be targeted. It has lost at least 15 workers there during the war. MSF also says that Israel wants to stop aid workers from describing the terrible conditions in Gaza, where no foreign journalists have been allowed to operate independently since the start of the genocidal war.

Other international humanitarian organizations face being barred from working in Gaza as of Thursday, January 1, for failing to comply with Israel’s new restrictions for aid groups operating in the devastated enclave.

Zionist regime threatened Tuesday to suspend the operations of international aid groups that did not renew their registration, which includes requiring organizations working in Gaza to provide personal details of their staff members.

Aid agencies have repeatedly voiced concerns over those requirements, citing the safety of their employees.

Zionist regime’s move comes as multiple countries warned that Gaza’s humanitarian situation is facing “renewed deterioration” and that conditions in the enclave “remain catastrophic.”

Gaza, which lies in ruins, is enduring a harsh winter, with heavy rain and plunging temperatures worsening already dire living conditions.

According to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Tuesday, the Israeli government started taking legal steps to revoke these organizations’ operating licenses, citing a lack of registration and the alleged involvement of some employees in terrorist activities.

The newspaper quoted Zionist regime’s ministry of diaspora affairs as saying that 37 organizations have so far been affected by the suspension.

The organizations were informed by the Zionist regime’s ministry that their licenses would be revoked on January 1 and that they would have to cease and complete their activities by March 1 at the latest, the newspaper said.