The Japan Times - Halt to MSF work will be 'catastrophic' for people of Gaza: MSF chief

Israel announced on Sunday that it was terminating all the activities in Gaza and the West Bank by the organisation, known by its French acronym MSF, after it failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff.

MSF slammed the move, which takes effect on March 1, as a "pretext" to obstruct aid.

"This is a decision that was made by the Israeli government to restrict humanitarian assistance into Gaza and the West Bank at the most critical time for Palestinians," MSF secretary-general Christopher Lockyear warned in an interview with AFP at the charity's Geneva headquarters.

"We are at a moment where Palestinian people need more humanitarian assistance, not less," he said. "Ceasing MSF activities is going to be catastrophic for the people of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank".

MSF has been a key provider of medical and humanitarian aid in Gaza, particularly since war broke out after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

The charity says it currently provides at least 20 percent of hospital beds in the territory and operates around 20 health centres.

In 2025 alone, it carried out more than 800,000 medical consultations, treated more than 100,000 trauma cases and assisted more than 10,000 infant deliveries.

It also provided more than 700 million litres of water, Lockyear pointed out.

- 'Impossible choice' -

Israel announced in December that it planned to prevent 37 aid organisations, including MSF, from working in Gaza for failing to submit detailed information about their Palestinian employees. The move drew widespread condemnation from NGOs and the United Nations.

It had alleged that two MSF employees had links with Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which the medical charity vehemently denies.

"If Israel has any evidence of such things, then they should share that evidence," Lockyear said, insisting that "there's been no proof given to us".

He decried "an orchestrated campaign to delegitimise us", calling on other countries to defend efforts to bring desperately-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza.

"They should be speaking to Israel, pressuring Israel to ensure that there is a reverse of any banning of humanitarian organisations."

Lockyear said MSF, which counts around 1,100 staff inside Gaza, had been trying to engage with Israeli authorities for nearly a year over the requested lists.

But it had been left with "an impossible choice", he said.

"We've been forced to choose between the safety and security of our staff and being able to reach patients."

- 'Can only get worse' -

The organisation said it decided not to hand over staff names "because Israeli authorities failed to provide the concrete assurances required to guarantee our staff's safety, protect their personal data, and uphold the independence of our medical operation".

Lockyear insisted that was a "very rational" decision, pointing out that 15 MSF staff had been killed in Gaza during the war, out of more than 500 humanitarian workers and more than 1,700 medical workers killed in the Strip.

Lockyear highlighted that without independent humanitarian organisations in Gaza, an already "catastrophic" situation "can only get worse".

"We need to increase massively the humanitarian assistance that's going into Gaza," he said, "not restrict it, not block it."

K.Hashimoto--JT