Israel ‘progressively asphyxiating’ Gaza, continues genocide: Doctors Without Borders

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Monday that Israel was continuing its genocide in Gaza and was “progressively asphyxiating” the region, urging governments to take immediate action.

In a statement, MSF said the conditions for the people’s survival were being “systematically destroyed” through sustained violence, “deliberate” blockade of essential supplies and the destruction of healtcare as well as infrastructure.

“In the past year, the physical trapping of people in Gaza has been made increasingly definitive by the establishment of Israel’s Yellow Line,” the French medical charity said.

Recalling that it was originally presented as temporary, MSF noted that the line is now reinforced by military positions, berms and ongoing demolitions while it has continued to move west, “squeezing people into a smaller and smaller area.”

MSF said people risk being shot by Israeli forces when approaching the area, while its teams continue to treat those wounded by gunfire nearby.

“The Yellow Line cannot be treated simply as a line on a map,” said Amande Bazerolle, MSF head of emergency response in Gaza. “It has become a mechanism of encirclement and ethnic cleansing, while cutting communities off from the infrastructure, healthcare, water and other essentials they need to survive.”

MSF said violence was not only confined to the areas around the “Yellow Line,” reporting having treated over 1,200 cases of violent trauma across Gaza in June and July alone.

It recalled that MSF teams treated more than 200,000 trauma cases over the past three years while Israel’s military offensive killed over 74,000 people.

The organization said overcrowding and limited access to clean water, sanitation, shelter and healthcare are contributing to the spread of disease. Its teams also treated over 11,000 skin disease cases and 1,500 chickenpox cases in June and July.

It also pointed to the dramatic deterioration of access to healthcare over the past three years as hospitals run out of basic supplies and patients unable to access essential medicines and treatment.

“Restrictions on essential supplies, such as engine oil and spare parts, are also crippling the infrastructure needed to keep hospitals, ambulances and water systems running, with generators already breaking down and water-trucking operations reduced,” the statement said.

It added that the crisis is not limited to Gaza as violent occupier attacks, military operation and raids on homes, displacements as well as home demolitions escalated rapidly across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

“It will take generations to recover from the harm that has already been done over the past three years, and in the preceding decades, while the excruciating consequences of Israel’s ongoing genocide are still being felt every day,” Bazerolle said.

She warned that Israel carried out destruction, displacement and deprivation “with impunity” while such practices became “normalised.”

“Governments must act now to ensure Israel stops the destruction and killing, prevents ethnic cleansing, and stops denying Palestinians the means of survival,” Bazerolle added.