Palestine

We provide medical and psychological assistance to people affected by the ongoing conflict in the West Bank and Gaza.

In Gaza, the local healthcare system is overstretched, underfunded and deeply impacted by a 15-year blockade. We provide assistance to people affected by burns and trauma with a multi-disciplinary approach, which can include surgical care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, health education, and psychosocial support.

In the West Bank, occupation, violence, unemployment and poverty continue to have a profound impact on the mental health of Palestinians. Our teams offer psychological support in Hebron, Nablus, and Qalqilya.

In late 2020, we began providing healthcare services in H2 area, in Hebron city, where Palestinian residents’ movements are subject to restrictions that severely impede their access to healthcare. We also started running mobile clinics to address the health needs of communities in Masafer Yatta, who are facing home demolitions and an increased risk of forcible transfer.

Featured

MSF, Doctors Without Borders, Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories

Armed conflict

Gaza: Caught in a Cycle of Destruction

18 Aug 2022

Our activities in 2021 in Palestine

Data and information from the International Activity Report 2021.

392

STAFF IN 2021 (FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT)

€20.9 M

20.9M

EXPENDITURE IN 2021

1989

YEAR MSF FIRST WORKED IN THE COUNTRY

MSF IN PALESTINE IN 2021 In Palestine, we run programmes providing specialist treatment for burns and trauma in Gaza, and mental healthcare in the West Bank. In 2021, we also responded to emergencies caused by conflict.

In May, Doctors Without Borders teams responded to outbreaks of violence in Jerusalem by supporting the Palestinian Red Crescent Society to assess and stabilise hundreds of people injured by the Israeli police. We also donated essential medical supplies to Al-Makkased hospital, the main trauma facility receiving victims of the violence.

Between 10 and 21 May, an Israeli military campaign in Gaza killed more than 250 people and injured close to 2,000 others, while rockets fired from the Strip killed 13 people and injured 700 in Israel. Our teams in Gaza scaled up activities in Al-Awda hospital in response to the high number of casualties. During these 10 days, we carried out over 100 surgical interventions on patients injured in the offensive.

As the number of patients with conflict-related injuries increased, we supported the health authorities by providing additional staff and medical supplies and improving triage in the emergency rooms in some of the main hospitals.

In Hebron, in the West Bank, we provided first-aid training to local communities and donated medical supplies to general and specialist healthcare facilities.

Besides these emergency interventions, we continued to run our long-term activities in Gaza, offering surgical and post-operative care, as well as psychosocial support, to trauma patients and burns victims in three hospitals and five clinics. Our mental health projects are also still running in the West Bank, serving people in Nablus, Hebron and Qalqilya.

In 2021, we opened a mobile clinic for women and children in H2, an area where people live under full Israeli occupation and suffer from a highly coercive environment, where we provide general outpatient consultations, screening for malnutrition, mental health support and sexual and reproductive health services.