Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

3-minute read
25 November 2023 | 10:43 CAT

Image: MSF

Doctors Without Borders or MSF staff are in shock and grieving after the killing of two MSF doctors and a third doctor following a strike on the Al Awda Hospital, shortly before the announcement of a cessation of hostilities after an agreement between Hamas and Israel for a few days of reprieve of the bombings and allow for humanitarian aid in the Gaza strip.

MSF says it was horrified by the death of MSF doctors Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Dr Ahmad Al Sahar and a third doctor working with Al Awda, Dr Ziad Al-Tatari.

When it was hit, Dr Abu Nujaila and Dr Al Sahar were in the facility on the third and fourth floors. Other medical staff, including MSF staff, were also severely injured. MSF has regularly shared information about Al Awda as a functioning hospital and the presence of its staff in Al Awda with warring parties.

MSF has been working in Al Awda since 2018, providing reconstructive surgeries for adults and trauma surgeries for children.

“We pay tribute to the courage of our colleagues, and we will always remember them,” MSF said in a statement.

The statement added, “We condemn this strike in the strongest terms and yet again call for the respect and protection of medical facilities, staff and patients.”

Attacks on medical facilities are a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law, and this has become systematic in the past weeks.

“This is yet another incident that MSF staff have been subject to in the last few days. Our colleagues who are assisting hundreds of patients in Gaza are facing extremely difficult times in providing the little medical care they can. Seeing doctors killed next to hospital beds is beyond tragic, and this must stop now,” MSF stated.

Listen to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up with Moulana Annisa Essack and Doctors without Borders (MSF) advocacy advisor Claire Waterhouse.