Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is remaining to provide assistance for the people of Gaza for as long as possible, despite restrictive new rules laid down by the Israeli authorities for 37 NGOs to leave the Occupied Palestinian Territory, by 1 March 2026.
The international medical humanitarian organisation is calling for a massive scale-up of lifesaving assistance and unhindered humanitarian access amid the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza. Lives continue to be lost due to sustained violence and persistent aid restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities. Despite these policies, MSF will remain in Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) for as long as possible, working under its registration with the Palestinian Authority.
Under international humanitarian law, as the occupying power, the Israeli authorities are obliged to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance. However, according to MSF these restrictive new rules threaten to drastically reduce already insufficient aid.
“Governments worldwide must ensure that the International Court of Justice decisions are respected, including facilitating the provision of humanitarian assistance. MSF is working to preserve services for patients in an increasingly constrained environment,” noted Christopher Lockyear, MSF Secretary General.
“The needs are immense and drastic restrictions have deadly consequences. Hundreds of thousands of patients need medical and mental health care, and tens of thousands require long-term medical, surgical and psychological follow-up.”
In recent weeks, humanitarian aid reaching Gaza has significantly decreased. In the West Bank, medical and humanitarian needs continue to escalate amidst alarming increases in violence, forced displacements, armed settler attacks, home demolitions, settlement expansion and obstruction to healthcare.
The withdrawal of MSF’s registration with the Israeli authorities is already impacting patient care, as deregistration compounds the strain on a health system devastated over the past two years and constrained by persistent restrictions on essential medical equipment and supplies. Since the beginning of January, MSF has been prevented by the Israeli authorities from bringing international staff and additional supplies into the OPT.
Since 1 March MSF’s international staff have been forced to leave the territory. MSF’s medical programmes are already facing shortages, and medical teams are particularly concerned for their ability to continue to provide emergency trauma care and rehabilitation services to patients, as well as paediatric care, sexual and reproductive health services, care for non-communicable diseases and psychiatric conditions. In the longer term, MSF’s activities will be uncertain and potentially impossible to maintain under such restrictive conditions.
“MSF’s programmes are critical lifelines. Medical care and humanitarian assistance on this scale cannot easily be replaced,” says Christopher Lockyear. “Amid ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, MSF will stay in the OPT for as long as possible, doing as much as we can. We call on the Israeli authorities to enable humanitarian aid at scale and on the international community to ensure Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are not abandoned to their fate.”
MSF has been working in the OPT since 1988, providing medical and mental health care, as well as large-scale water and sanitation services more recently. In 2025, it supported one in five hospital beds in Gaza, assisted one in three deliveries, carried out 913,284 outpatient consultations, and distributed more than 700 million litres of water. This year MSF planned to expand its programmes with a budget of €130m. That support is now shrouded in uncertainty.
The restrictive new registration requirements coincide with a co-ordinated global campaign of online attacks targeting MSF, promoted by the Government of Israel. “A delegitimisation campaign, grounded in false and unsubstantiated allegations, is designed to discredit MSF, silence the organisation’s voice, and obstruct the provision of healthcare,” MSF’s Secretary General added.
“In a context where international journalists are barred and Palestinian journalists are regularly killed, further reducing NGO access risks removing yet another layer of witnesses to the ongoing violence and its enduring impacts on people.”
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