MSF: Destruction on unprecedented scale in occupied West Bank
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Monday of a sharp increase in violence against Palestinians and systematic obstruction of healthcare access in the occupied West Bank.
A report titled “Inflicting Harm and Denying Care,” published on March 21, documents how military operations, settler violence, and restrictions imposed by occupation forces have severely limited access to essential medical services, resulting in preventable deaths and a deepening humanitarian crisis.
According to the group, at least 870 Palestinians were martyred and more than 7,100 injured between October 2023 and January 2025.
“Palestinian patients are dying because they simply cannot reach hospitals,” said Brice de le Vingne, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders.
“We’re seeing ambulances blocked by Israeli forces at checkpoints while carrying critical patients, medical facilities surrounded and raided during active operations, and healthcare workers subjected to physical violence while trying to save lives,” he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recorded 694 attacks on healthcare in the West Bank from October 2023 to December 2024. These include direct assaults on hospitals, destruction of clinics, harassment, detention, injury, or even killing of first responders.
A paramedic from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society recounted a raid on a stabilization point in Tubas.
“Israeli forces surrounded the stabilization point, closing both entrances, even though it was very clear that this was a medical building,” the medic said, adding: “They ordered all the paramedics to exit. There were around 22 of us. Israeli soldiers shot inside and outside the building, damaging our supplies and the stabilization point.”
The MSF report emphasized that roadblocks, curfews, and lockdowns imposed by the occupation have made it nearly impossible for patients in remote areas, including those in Jenin and Nablus, to access healthcare. Moreover, people with chronic illnesses such as kidney disease have missed critical treatments like dialysis due to these restrictions.
Amid the ongoing aggression in the occupied West Bank, particularly in the refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams, Doctors Without Borders denounced the “extremely precarious” situation faced by displaced Palestinians.
MSF said the scale of forced displacement and destruction of camps “has not been seen in decades” in the West Bank.
“People are unable to return to their homes as Israeli forces have blocked access to the camps, destroying homes and infrastructure,” said MSF Director of Operations Brice de la Vingne.
“Israel must stop this, and the humanitarian response needs to be scaled up.”
According to the United Nations, some 40,000 residents have been displaced since January 21, as the occupation forces escalated their offensive on northern West Bank, just two days after a truce agreement took effect in the Gaza Strip.
