MSF Says Israel Blocks Doctors’ Work in West Bank
(AWP) - Doctors without Borders (MSF) President Christos Christou said on Thursday that Israeli forces were blocking the work of the organization’s medical crews in the West Bank city of Jenin.
“There has been a remarkable increase in settler attacks on Palestinians in the cities and camps of the West Bank, including Jenin Camp,” Christou said in a press conference in the Jordanian capital, Amman, after he returned from the West Bank.
“During their incursions, the Israeli troops blocked the work of our medical crews at the hospital we support in Jenin. Worse than that, they prevented people from requesting medical care. During the raids, the army sealed off the road leading to several hospitals, and denied ambulances access to carry the wounded and move about within the camp,” he added.
The MSF chief described the health conditions in the Gaza Strip as “disastrous,” and beyond the limits of any humanitarian crisis the organization has ever handled.
“In Gaza, since the beginning of the military campaign, the Israeli government has imposed a total siege over the strip, denying access to survival necessities to the inhabitants stranded there, including water, food, medical provisions, and the necessary fuel to operate incubators and kidney dialysis equipment. There is no justification for these actions. Blocking necessities for inhabitants is collective punishment, a crime banned by international humanitarian law,” Christou noted.
He added that Israel had violently killed a number of MSF staff, which could never be justified ethically or legally.
Christou appealed to the world not to let the perpetrators proceed with impunity, calling for protection of medical crews and health care sites as “holy places protecting the people.”