Palestine: MSF responds to the Israeli government's smear campaign

Since the end of December, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been the target of a smear and defamation campaign by the Israeli authorities, who have been spreading false information about MSF through their official accounts as well as through sponsored online content. These false allegations are also extremely dangerous, as they further expose MSF teams to security risks.

MSF categorically denies these accusations – detailed and well-substantiated responses to each of them are available on this page – and wishes to place them in the context of the genocidal war waged by Israel since October 2023 in Gaza, as well as its policy of occupation and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.

For several months, MSF has been engaged in the process of renewing its registration in Israel, which is necessary to operate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. We have completed the required administrative procedures and provided the information requested by the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and the Fight Against Antisemitism (MDA), except for sharing the list of Palestinian members of our organization.

On this matter, MSF reiterates its concerns about sharing information on its Palestinian staff with the Israeli authorities, particularly in a context where medical and humanitarian workers are harassed, arbitrarily detained, attacked, and killed in large numbers. Fifteen MSF staff members have been killed by the Israeli army since October 2023.

The reason given by the Israeli authorities to justify this request is the alleged presence of members of armed groups among MSF personnel. Yet, in Palestine as in our other operational contexts, it is obviously not in MSF’s interest to employ active members of armed groups. Doing so would not only contradict the commitments of the organization and its staff but would also endanger patients, healthcare facilities, and other members of the organization.

In reality, this request, and the controversy stirred by the Israeli authorities around it, is primarily a pretext and a diversion aimed at hiding the highly political nature of the ongoing NGO ban process. On the one hand, some organizations that provided staff lists were not re-registered; on the other hand, and by the explicit admission of the Israeli authorities themselves, MSF is currently targeted because of its role as a witness and its public positions since October 2023, which the Israeli authorities equate with delegitimization, and even endangering the State of Israel.

Our teams report what they see with their own eyes and what they experience themselves in Gaza and the West Bank. Numerous observers, legal experts, human rights organizations, and several United Nations reports also describe the total destruction of the Gaza Strip, the annihilation of its health system, the siege imposed on the territory, and the man-made famine created by the Israeli army during two years of a total war of unprecedented intensity, as genocide.

By tarnishing the reputation of NGOs, accusing them of being infiltrated by Hamas, and attempting to minimize their work, Israel aims to justify the unacceptable: further reducing aid reaching Palestinians, further suffocating the Gaza Strip, forcing Palestinians into an impossible choice – surviving under inhumane conditions or leaving Gaza – while eliminating the last witnesses to its genocidal efforts.

MSF’s registration in Israel expired on December 31, 2025, and we are no longer authorized to deliver medical supplies or maintain rotations of our international staff in Gaza.

However, MSF continues to manage one-fifth of the roughly 2,300 hospital beds still available in Gaza; one in three births takes place in a hospital facility where we operate. We also provide millions of liters of water per day and deliver care that is severely lacking in Gaza, such as treatment for major burn victims.

We wish to continue assisting Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and we call on the Israeli authorities to provide acceptable conditions for our operations, including measures to ensure the safety of MSF staff and their patients.