Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

3-minute read
16 October 2023 | 19:57 CAT

Image: MSF

As the ultimatum given to the population expires, MSF calls on the Israeli authorities to show humanity.

The organisation says that despite Israeli announcements suggesting safe areas for the population trapped in the Gaza Strip, they are exposed to bombardment throughout the territory. This includes the area in the south, where tens of thousands of people have fled following the Israeli ultimatum.

As the Israeli army has been bombarding the Gaza Strip without restraint for a week, MSF calls for the most elementary humanity to be shown while concerned about their medical staff being trapped in Gaza.

The MSF’s Monica Genya spoke to Radio Islam International. Doctors Without Borders has provided medical humanitarian assistance in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1989.

“We have over three hundred staff working in Gaza and majority of the staff have not been accounted for and are not safe,” Genya said.

According to Genya, the team’s report on the impact of the medical services provided by Doctors Without Borders is horrific, with no drinking water, food, medical supplies and no way to get access to them.

“We are actually begging and pleading if there is some negotiation that can be done, atleast for drinking water to be restored on to the Gaza strip as the conditions are completely inhumane,” Genya added.

“Dying under bombs in Gaza cannot be the only option left to people. In the north of the Strip, where Israeli ultimatums ordering people to flee or face annihilation have multiplied, the situation is dramatic. Among the people who have not been able to flee, who do not know where to go, are MSF colleagues who have holed up with their families on-site or who continue as much as possible to treat the wounded who are flocking to hospitals,” the MSF stated.

The MSF said, “Hospitals are overwhelmed. There are no more painkillers now. Our staff tells us about the wounded screaming in pain, the injured, the sick who cannot get to the hospital, and the terror of finding themselves bombed in a few hours. Other people tell us about the impossibility of going out for even one hour to get supplies. In the south of Gaza, where people were called to move to by the Israeli authorities, the situation is extremely difficult.”

حَسْبُنَا اللَّهُ وَ نِعْمَ الْوَ كِيلُ

اَللّٰهُمَّ إنَّا نَجْعَلُكَ فِيْ نُحُوْرِهِمْ وَنَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شُرُورِهِمْ

Listen to the full interview on the Daily Round-Up with Moulana Junaid Kharsany.