Doctors Without Borders said in a report published today, Thursday, that the health care system in the occupied West Bank “is in a permanent emergency” since October 2023.
The organization added that “a dramatic escalation in violence was characterized by Israeli military penetration for long periods and tougher restrictions on the movement strongly hindered access to basic services, especially health care, which led to an exacerbation of the already miserable living conditions for many Palestinians.”
“Since October 7, 2023, the World Health Organization has recorded 694 attacks on health care in the West Bank, with hospitals and health care facilities often under the siege of the military forces,” the report said.
The report was considered in “attacks and obstruction of health care in the context of what the International Court of Justice described as racist”, and revealed “a pattern of systematic intervention by the Israeli forces and settlers in providing emergency health care.”
The Palestinian Ministry of Health says that the Israeli forces and the settlers have killed at least 884 Palestinians – including many militants – in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Doctors Without Borders considered that preventing the Palestinians from reaching health care “is part of a broader system for a collective punishment imposed by Israel under the guise of its campaign on Palestinian militants.”
Treed system
The organization said, “The Palestinian health care system is already tired in the West Bank has become more vulnerable since October 2023, and faces great restrictions on the budget.”
She added that half of the basic drugs have run out of stores, and the salaries of health workers have not been paid a year ago, noting that “most clinics and hospitals work at large levels largely.”
The report continued that “access to health care is strongly having a large -scale system of checkpoints and road barriers that hinder ambulances, and is aggravated by the escalation of violent military raids that involve the use of impartial tactics.”
This is exacerbated by “repeated attacks on medical workers and facilities, and hospitals and health care facilities are often encircled by military forces, with the forces occupied the same buildings at times, which increases the risks to patients and employees.”
She considered that violence committed by settlers often leads to exacerbating these miserable conditions.
The MSF called on Israel to stop its “incompatible use of strength” in the West Bank, including medical facilities and against medical workers.
It called for independent investigations into similar previous attacks, facilitating the access of medical aid to the needy, and allowing the United Nations Relief and Works of Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) to continue its work.