MSF warns aid collapse looms in Gaza as NGO expulsion order takes effect

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling for a massive increase in humanitarian aid and unhindered access to Gaza, warning that Israeli restrictions are pushing an already catastrophic situation to the point of complete collapse, according to a statement from the organisation. New rules requiring 37 NGOs, including MSF, to leave Palestine by 1 March 2026 threaten to strip away what little medical care remains for hundreds of thousands of patients.

Conditions in Gaza remain devastating. Violence continues to kill and injure Palestinians daily, while access to water, shelter and medical care is being heavily restricted or denied outright. In recent weeks, the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza has dropped sharply. In the West Bank, needs are also escalating amid rising violence, forced displacement, settler attacks and obstruction of healthcare services. MSF notes that since January 2026, Israeli authorities have blocked the organisation from bringing in international staff and additional supplies.

The impact on medical services is already severe. MSF currently supports one in five hospital beds in Gaza, assists one in three deliveries and runs large-scale water and sanitation services. In January 2026 alone, MSF teams handled nearly 84,000 outpatient consultations, 40,000 emergency cases and almost 6,000 trauma patients. The organisation had planned to expand its programmes this year with a budget of €130 million — plans that are now in serious jeopardy.

“The needs are immense and drastic restrictions have deadly consequences,” said MSF Secretary General Christopher Lockyear. He warned that medical care and humanitarian assistance on this scale “cannot easily be replaced” and called on Israeli authorities to enable large-scale aid access. MSF also alleges that a coordinated online campaign, promoted by the Israeli government, is deliberately trying to discredit the organisation and silence its reporting at a time when international journalists are barred and Palestinian journalists are regularly killed.

MSF has worked in Palestine since 1988 and says it will stay for as long as possible. The organisation is urging governments worldwide to ensure International Court of Justice decisions are respected and to press for full, unhindered humanitarian access so that Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are not, as Lockyear put it, “abandoned to their fate.”