MSF reports that the healthcare system in the West Bank is under immense strain, with attacks on facilities and blockades worsening an already dire situation since October 2023.
Access to health care in the occupied West Bank has been severely hindered by a widespread network of Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks, which impede the movement of ambulances and emergency medical teams, according to a report published by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Thursday.
The situation is reportedly worsened by violent military raids that use disproportionate tactics, making it increasingly difficult for healthcare providers to reach those in need.
The report “covers a one-year period from October 2023 and 2024” and “provides in-depth interviews from 38 MSF patients and personnel, hospital staff, paramedics and volunteers supported by MSF”.
Israeli Forces Tighten Grip on West Bank as Resistance Strikes in Jenin, Tulkarm
Between October 2023 and December 2024, “WHO has recorded 694 attacks on healthcare in the West Bank, with hospitals and healthcare structures often besieged by military force,” MSF noted.
The medical personnel reported “prolonged and violent Israeli military incursions and stricter movement restrictions, all of which have severely hindered access to essential services, particularly healthcare.”
Moreover, according to MSF, “the situation has further deteriorated since the ceasefire in Gaza and has exacerbated dire living conditions for many Palestinians who are paying an immense physical and psychological toll.”
Brice de le Vingne, MSF emergency coordinator, stated that “Palestinian patients are dying because they simply cannot reach hospitals”.
“We’re seeing ambulances blocked by Israeli forces at checkpoints while carrying critical patients, medical facilities surrounded and raided during active operations, and healthcare workers subjected to physical violence while trying to save lives,” he added.
30 Detained, Curfew Imposed: Israel’s Crackdown in the Occupied West Bank
MSF said in its report that “healthcare workers express a feeling of insecurity as they are frequently harassed, detained, injured and even killed.”
A medic from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, supported by MSF, reported that “Israeli forces surrounded (a) stabilisation point (in Tubas), closing both its entrances, even though it was very clear that this was a medical building”.
“They ordered all the paramedics to exit the stabilisation point. There were around 22 of us paramedics there. Israeli soldiers shot inside and outside the building, damaging our supplies and the stabilisation point,” the medic reportedly added.
MSF noted that ”in case of medical emergency, restrictions of movement can have deadly consequences.”
The organization recalled that “as the occupying power, Israel has legal obligations under international law to ensure access to healthcare and protect medical personnel.”
Noting that “the healthcare system in the West Bank is under immense strain and forced into a state of perpetual emergency,” MSF called on Israel to “stop the violence against healthcare workers, patients and health facilities and to stop obstructing medical personnel from performing lifesaving duties.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
