Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, has refuted Israel’s claim that the April 1 airstrike which killed seven aid workers was merely a “regrettable incident.” The tragic strike hit a convoy transporting seven workers from the World Central Kitchen, an organization dedicated to providing food relief in crisis and conflict zones.
It was shortly after the workers had overseen the unloading of 100 tonnes of food that had been brought to the besieged Gaza Strip by sea. “We do not accept the narrative of regrettable incidents,” said Christopher Lockyear, the secretary-general of MSF international, at a press conference in Geneva on Thursday. “We do not accept it because what has happened to World Central Kitchen and MSF’s convoys and shelters is part of the same pattern of deliberate attacks on humanitarians, health workers, journalists, UN personnel, schools and homes.
“We have been saying it for weeks now: this pattern of attacks is either intentional or indicative of reckless incompetence,” he said. Lockyear said the MSF continues to maintain a presence in Gaza but the organization is diligently evaluating the potential risks faced by its teams on a daily basis.
“This pattern of attacks is either intentional or indicative of reckless incompetence,” he said, adding the tragedy showed that measures to ease the conflict were futile “in a war fought with no rules.” “That these attacks on humanitarian workers are allowed to happen is a political choice,” Lockyear said.
“Our movements and locations are shared, coordinated and identified already. This is about impunity, a total disregard for the laws of war. And now it must become about accountability.”
The MSF official said Israel faces no political cost for its crimes, as “its allies enable this brutality with impunity and provide even more weapons.”
Lockyear also said the MSF had urged Israel to investigate a deadly attack on an MSF convoy in November and probe other incidents involving the organization, including an Israeli attack on an MSF shelter in al-Mawasi in February. He said there had been “no explanation for any of the incidents.”
Amber Alayyan, deputy program manager for the MSF West Asia, said Israel is systematically destroying Gaza’s healthcare system, describing scenes of carnage that no hospitals in the world would be able to handle.
The majority of injuries observed by MSF medical personnel in Gaza were caused by explosions, particularly from bombs striking residential buildings, Alayyan told a press conference at the MSF headquarters in Geneva. She said children were arriving at hospitals with gunshot injuries caused by drones, and numerous patients were being trapped under debris before sustaining serious burns.
“You get crush injuries to the abdomen, to the thorax; amputations are required for the legs and arms; and on top of that, patients suffer severe burns,” she said. “No healthcare system in the world can cope with the volume and type of injuries, and the medical conditions, that we’re seeing on a daily basis.”
Alayyan said, “You could add 1,000 field hospitals; you’re not going to be able to replace the healthcare system that was in Gaza before the war.” “We see gunshot wounds now in children from quadcopters – drones with guns.”
