Category: News & Stories

MSF unequivocally refutes the allegations made by the Israeli authorities in recent days. MSF would never knowingly employ anyone involved in military activities, which contradicts our core values and ethics. If the descriptions of what our teams see with their own eyes in Gaza – death, destruction and the human consequences of genocidal violence – are unpalatable to some, the fault lies with those committing these atrocities, not with those who speak of them.

MSF has legitimate concerns around the registration requirement to share personal information of our Palestinian staff with Israeli authorities, heightened by the fact that 15 MSF colleagues have been killed by Israeli forces. In any context – especially one where medical and humanitarian workers have been intimidated, arbitrarily detained, attacked, and killed in large numbers – demanding staff lists as a condition for access to territory is an outrageous overreach. It undermines humanitarian independence and neutrality and is made all the more dangerous by the absence of any clarity about how such sensitive data will be used, stored, or shared. Yet, rather than engage with MSF to hear our concerns, the Ministry in charge of the registration process has ignored our repeated requests for a meeting and accuses us in the media of knowingly harbouring alleged terrorists.

“I’m not afraid of the booms. The only thing I want is to sleep in my own bed,” says the three-year-old daughter of my colleague here in southern Lebanon. 

A child who is no longer afraid of bombs as long as her mother is with her. A child whose greatest wish is to never have to flee from airstrikes again. Simply to be at home. In peace. 

The uncertain background noise 

I live and work in Nabatieh, a city in southern Lebanon, about 15 kilometers from the southern border. Officially, there is a ceasefire here – but the sky is rarely quiet. 

The war last year hit the south of the country hard. Since then, despite the ceasefire, there have been constant airstrikes and drone flights in the border region. 

For the civilian population, they mean a constant background noise of uncertainty. People here call it “routine.” To outsiders, it sounds like constant insecurity – and both are true. 

With mobile clinics to the patients 

Our project in Nabatieh is still young. We launched it in April 2025 to provide medical care to people in this region. Here, the public healthcare system is weakened by years of economic crisis and the aftermath of Israeli attacks on healthcare, and the fear of escalation shapes everyday life. 

MSF provides a vast amount of life-saving healthcare, yet even this is not enough to meet the overwhelming needs of people in Gaza. In 2025 alone, with a budget of more than €100 million, MSF teams handled over 100,000 trauma cases; managing the care for over 400 beds; performed 22,700 surgical operations on nearly 10,000 patients; carried out almost 800,000 outpatient consultations; administered 45,000 vaccinations; assisted in more than 10,000 deliveries; provided more than 40,000 individual mental health sessions and group sessions for over 60,000 people;  distributed more than 700 million litres of water and produced nearly 100 million litres of clean water.

For 2026, MSF has committed an estimated 100-120 million euros for its humanitarian response in Gaza. Many of the services provided by MSF are largely unavailable elsewhere in Gaza due to the destruction of the health system.

 If MSF loses its access to Gaza in 2026, due to the Israeli authorities, a large portion of people in Gaza will lose access to critical medical care, water, and lifesaving support. MSF’s activities serve nearly half a million people in Gaza through our vital support to the destroyed health system.

I remember people from Khartoum in an overcrowded student dormitory in Port Sudan in May 2023. The infrastructure was not adapted for dozens of families to be sheltered there, and they were telling us that they had nothing but the clothes on their back as they suddenly left the capital city when the fighting erupted.

I remember the refugees who fled the mass killings of June and November 2023 in El Geneina whom I met when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) started the siege on El Fasher in May 2024. They recounted their own horrific stories of what they directly witnessed the previous year, when thousands of their community members were slaughtered. They were already fearing that the siege of El Fasher would spiral into similar exactions.

I remember the villagers who told us the violence they faced across Jazirah State when their villages were brutally attacked by the RSF and had to flee en masse at the end of October 2024. We responded for a second time in a few months to a massive wave of cholera as the consequences of overcrowded shelters lacking clean water and proper sanitation.

I remember the emergency room of Al Nao hospital in Omdurman on 1 February 2025, when the RSF shelled a marketplace at peak hour a few kilometres from the hospital. The emergency room was overwhelmed with patients alive and dead, and in the middle Ministry of Health staff were doing all they could to save lives and clean the blood from all over the floor.

I remember the shock and the sadness on the faces of the people returning to Khartoum after Ramadan. They were coming back to entire neighbourhoods completely destroyed after months of relentless street fighting and campaigns of indiscriminate heavy artillery shelling and airstrikes. The desolation was a stark indication of the armed factions aim to destroy the enemy and maintain the power over people without any regards for the preservation of human lives and dignity.

I remember the mothers in the neonatology ward of El Geneina Teaching Hospital, counting how many newborns died during the past week alone because of the immense gaps in the healthcare service delivery in West Darfur.

The scale of the devastation in Sudan is soul crushing.

The climate emergency is a major health threat to millions of people worldwide, and vulnerable communities hit the hardest. In 2024 alone, MSF teams responded to devastating floods in West Africa and South Sudan, repeated cyclones in Madagascar, and severe heatwaves and drought in the Horn of Africa. Across the Sahel, the deadly combination of malaria and malnutrition overwhelmed pediatric services. In Chad, MSF is now providing year-round treatment and prevention for malnutrition.

“The climate crisis is first and foremost a health crisis. Vulnerable communities are paying with their health and their lives for a problem they did not create,” said Dr. Didier-Mukeba Tshialala, MSF Medical Coordinator for West and Central Africa. “

Last year was the hottest ever recorded, the tenth consecutive year of record-breaking heat. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), nearly 70% of global deaths are linked to climate-related diseases.[i] Yet climate action remains far too limited.

[i] https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/chapter/chapter-7/  

Restrictive policies made SAR almost impossible

MSF was forced to halt rescue activities of the Geo Barents in December 2024, after more than two years of operating under restrictive Italian laws and policies, particularly the Piantedosi Decree and the distant port practice. These restrictive rules made operating the Geo Barents unfeasible; despite its capacity of up to 700 people, it was routinely directed to distant ports while carrying only around 50 survivors.

“MSF’s decision to deploy a smaller, faster vessel is a strategic response to the restrictive and obstructive laws and practice imposed by the Italian government, which specifically targets humanitarian rescue vessels” adds Gil.

How the War Changed Everything

When war broke out in Sudan, Tanzeel’s life was turned upside down. She tried to stay in safer areas, but the conflict kept spreading. Eventually, she was forced to leave Sudan and move to Egypt. Even before the war, the children’s home pharmacy in Khartoum struggled with limited supplies. But once the fighting began, the situation became desperate — she was the only pharmacist left, witnessing severe and ongoing medicine shortages.

Moments She’ll Never Forget

One of the hardest moments she faced was in September, when a young boy was brought in after a dog bite. His mother had delayed taking him to the clinic, and although the vaccine was available, it was too late to save him. “Ignorance can cost lives,” Tanzeel says sadly. “The problem wasn’t the lack of medicine, but the delay in getting treatment. Awareness is just as important as having a medical team in place.” She believes public health education is crucial. Without it, even the best medical teams can’t save lives in time.

Lessons Learned

Although her time working directly with MSF before her mission was short, Tanzeel felt at home in South Sudan. Being Sudanese herself, she understood the challenges deeply. She knows future missions in other countries may be more difficult, but she’s ready for them.

She also stresses the critical role of pharmacists in crises: “The most important thing is to make sure life-saving medicines are available when needed. Without medicine, even the best medical team can’t function.”

Water scarcity

In northeast Syria, widespread water scarcity, driven by climate change, the weaponization of water resources, prolonged droughts, and excessive groundwater extraction have been made worse by frequent damage to water infrastructure, including Allouk and Tishreen water stations.

Since 2019, repeated interruptions to Alouk station, the main source of safe water for nearly one million people, have forced families to rely on unsafe and unregulated water sources. Survey results indicated only 37 per cent of households can consistently access sufficient water to meet basic hygiene and domestic needs.

“We bathe once every five days now. We have to choose between being clean and being hydrated”, says *Khalid, a 26-year-old man who has been displaced to Al-Hasakah during the years of the conflict.

The assessment highlights water insecurity disproportionately affects women, who are primarily responsible for securing household water, often walk long distances, facing physical exhaustion, harassment, and exploitation.

“I was collecting our household’s water allocation from the communal water tank. The man managing the distribution insisted I step inside so he could “help me”. As he leaned in, he touched me inappropriately. I was so shaken that I left without taking the water, since then, I’ve never gone back alone”, says *Fatima, a 27-year-old woman from Al-Hasakah.

Women reported some private vendors have offered water in exchange for sex, which is unacceptable and highlights the intersection of vulnerability, gender, and survival.

MSF teams have recently rehabilitated 12 boreholes in Al-Hasakah and supported the rehabilitation of two water stations (Al Aziziah and Al Hamma) in readiness for any potential startup of Alouk and ensure access to safe water for local communities.

Economic vulnerability, food insecurity

Economic vulnerability is widespread, with median household incomes reported at $150 US per month, ranging from as low as $15 US to $200 US. Food has become increasingly out of reach for lower-income families, with 77 per cent of households surveyed reporting food shortages multiple times per month.