19 Oct 2023

Médecins Sans Frontières on the huminatarian crisis in Gaza

From Nine To Noon, 9:25 am on 19 October 2023

There is a humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. So far aid for Gaza has been held up across the border from Egypt. As has the ability for Gazans with passports to leave.

Overnight, following a meeting with the US President Joe Biden, the Israeli government said it "will not thwart" humanitarian supplies from Egypt as long as it is only food, water and medicine for the civilian population in the southern Gaza strip.

There is dispute over who caused the explosion at Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital in Gaza - where hundreds are feared dead. Israel is denying responsibility.

It is blaming the blast on a misfired rocket from the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad. Palestinian officials are blaming Israel for the explosion.

Médecins Sans Frontières has labelled the explosion at the hospital a "massacre" that is "absolutely unacceptable". The organisation was operating in the hospital when the explosion happened and the ceiling fell on the operating room. 

Former MSF medical co-ordinator in Palestine, Dr Nathalie Thurtle, who has worked across Gaza and the West Bank talks to Kathryn about what is needed on the ground.

10/15/2023 Gaza, Palestine. People walking amidst the destruction of houses and streets in Khan Yunis, located in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the devastation caused by Israeli airstrikes. (Photo by Mohamed Zaanoun / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP)

People walking amidst the destruction of houses and streets in Khan Yunis, located in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: MOHAMED ZAANOUN / AFP