27th February 2026: The international medical humanitarian organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), is calling for a massive scale-up of lifesaving assistance and unhindered humanitarian access amid the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza, where lives continue to be lost due to sustained violence and persistent aid restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities. Despite these policies, MSF is committed to remaining to provide assistance in the 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. Yet restrictive new rules, which require 37 NGOs to leave the OPT by 1 March 2026, 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,” says 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.”
Despite the US-led peace plan, the Israeli authorities continue to heavily restrict and even deny water, shelter and medical care. Living conditions are maintained at undignified levels, and violence continues to kill and injure Palestinians on a daily basis. 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, and by March 1 2026 all MSF’s international staff will be forced to leave the territory.
MSF’s medical programmes are already facing shortages, and our medical teams are particularly concerned for their ability to continue to provide emergency trauma care and rehabilitation services to patients, as well as pediatric 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, MSF 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. In January 2026, MSF provided 83,579 outpatient consultations, treated 40,646 emergency cases, and treated 5,981 patients for trauma-related conditions. In response to overwhelming needs, MSF had planned to expand its programmes in 2026 with a budget of €130 million. That support is now shrouded in uncertainty.
The restrictive new registration requirements, used as a pretext to obstruct assistance, coincides with a coordinated 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,” says Christopher Lockyear. “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.”
MSF is an international, medical, humanitarian organisation that delivers medical care to people in need, regardless of their origin, religion, or political affiliation. MSF Australia was established in 1995 and is one of 24 international MSF sections committed to delivering medical humanitarian assistance to people in crisis. Every year more than 120 Australians and New Zealanders go on assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières working as: doctors, midwives, psychologists, laboratory technicians, human resource/finance coordinators, pharmacists, mental health specialists and logisticians. MSF delivers medical care based on need alone and operates independently of government, religion or economic influence and irrespective of race, religion or gender. For more information visit msf.org.au
