Doctors Without Borders (DWB) vehemently condemns the Israeli attack in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, Gaza, which killed two relatives of an DWB staff member. Six other people were injured in the attack.

Late Tuesday night (20/02), Israeli forces conducted a military operation in Al-Mawasi, located on the coast of Gaza, during which an Israeli tank fired at a house housing DWB professionals and their relatives. The attack killed the daughter-in-law and wife of one of our colleagues and injured six people, five of whom are women or children. The shots were fired at a building clearly identified as belonging to MSF, hitting the front gate, the exterior of the building, and the interior of the ground floor.

Ambulance teams were prevented from leaving for over two hours due to the bombardment in the area. Later, professionals managed to reach the site and take the wounded, some with burns, to the International Medical Corps Field Hospital in Rafah.

“We are outraged and deeply saddened by these deaths,” laments Meinie Nicolai, General Director of DWB, who currently coordinates our medical activities in Gaza. “On the same day that the United States chose to veto an immediate ceasefire, two daughters saw their mother and sister-in-law killed by a projectile from an Israeli tank.”

Doctors Without Borders Warns, "Nowhere in Gaza Is Safe"

“These deaths underscore the grim reality that nowhere in Gaza is safe, that promises of safe areas are empty, and conflict resolution mechanisms are unreliable,” emphasizes Nicolai. “The amount of force used in densely populated urban environments is staggering, and attacking a building knowing it's filled with humanitarian professionals and their families is unconscionable.”

At the time of the attack, 64 people were sheltered in the house. All parties involved in the war, including Israeli forces, are regularly informed of the location and are aware of the presence of DWB teams in specific locations. Israeli forces were clearly informed of the precise location of this DWB shelter in Al-Mawasi. Additionally, a two-by-three-meter DWB flag was hanging outside the building. No evacuation order was issued by Israeli forces before the attack. We have contacted Israeli authorities and are seeking more information.

Some of our colleagues and their relatives who lived in the MSF shelter before the attack in Al-Mawasi had already survived the January 8 attack on another DWB shelter in Rafah, which killed a 5-year-old daughter of an MSF staff member.

This once again demonstrates that Israeli forces are not ensuring the safety of civilians in their military operations and shows a complete disregard for human life and disrespect for the medical mission. This scenario makes it nearly impossible to sustain medical humanitarian activities in Gaza.

DWB teams are supporting our colleagues and their surviving relatives from yesterday's attack, as well as the loved ones of those who were killed.

Four DWB professionals have been killed since the beginning of the escalation of the war, along with several relatives.

We reiterate our call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza. Violence against civilians must end now.

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Text and Photo are a reproduction from Doctors Without Borders