Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) strongly condemned Israel’s strike on Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Palestine, which is the largest remaining functioning hospital in the Gaza Strip, where MSF teams work.

On 23 March, Israeli forces targeted the hospital’s inpatient surgical department, killing two people, according to the Ministry of Health. MSF teams confirmed there were several people injured, one of which was admitted to the trauma unit, and that severe damage was done to the building.

“This attack shows a total disregard for the protection of medical facilities, endangered patients and medical staff and the very provision of healthcare”, MSF said in a statement on Tuesday. “As Israeli forces escalate their operations in Gaza once again, MSF calls for the respect and protection of healthcare facilities, patients and medical staff in Gaza, where the health system has been all but destroyed.”

“Strikes such as these are horrific for staff and patients,” said Claire Nicolet, MSF head of emergencies in Gaza. “We cannot go back to repeated attacks on healthcare facilities when the health system in Gaza is already hanging by a thread, and no supplies have entered in weeks.”

MSF said while Gaza's healthcare system has collapsed, and the medical needs of people continue to skyrocket, medical workers are yet again forced to fear for their lives while providing care.

“At Nasser hospital, two MSF colleagues, who were working in different hospital departments, described panic among patients at the time of the attack”, it said.

“The distance between us and the explosion was so close that we could’ve been hit too,” said an MSF nurse who works in another ward in Nasser hospital and was close by when the strike happened. “Our colleagues, medical staff, patients and their caretakers were all terrified.”

During Israel’s war on Gaza, MSF has witnessed relentless attacks on health facilities, a complete disregard for patients, medical workers and International Humanitarian Law, resulting in the systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system.

According to the World Health Organization, not a single hospital in the Gaza Strip is currently fully functional, and only 21 out of the enclave’s 36 hospitals are partially functioning.

As one of the last main hospitals in southern Gaza, Nasser hospital is providing care for people with severe burns and trauma injuries, newborns, and pregnant women.

Since returning in mid-May 2024, MSF teams have been supporting the emergency, paediatric, and maternity departments at Nasser hospital, as well as running a burn and trauma unit. In February 2024, MSF teams were forced to flee after the hospital was shelled by Israeli forces.

In a separate incident on 24 March, MSF teams in Al-Mawasi healthcare clinic were forced to close the emergency room, evacuate the facility and suspend activities for the day due to close-by shootings and shelling.

“Healthcare facilities, patients and medical staff must be protected”, said the organization. “MSF calls once again for the immediate restoration of the ceasefire and for the resumption of the entry of essential aid and basic supplies, which people in Gaza desperately need.”