Doctors Without Borders calls for immediate and sustained truce in war-torn Gaza

New York: Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), a global medical humanitarian organisation, on Monday, appealed to the UN Security Council to do everything within its power to ensure an immediate and sustained ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, saying it was the only way to stop the killing of more civilians and allow for the scaled-up delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid.

In an open letter to the UN Security Council, the International President of MSF, Christos Christou, said a seven-day truce, after weeks of relentless violence, was a welcome respite for the people of Gaza.

Israel launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7.

On November 24, the Israel-Hamas truce began and was renewed twice before it ended on December 1. Under the truce, fighting was paused and humanitarian aid was allowed to enter Gaza as Hamas released captives in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners.

However, he said, these seven days were not enough to organise the delivery of sufficient aid and essential supplies, to meet the immeasurable needs.

The letter, released on December 4, shows the current state of Gaza and draws attention to the collapse of the healthcare system in the war-torn region.

Christou appealed for an immediate truce in Gaza. He also said that the medical teams of MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, in the West Bank have also reported attacks on healthcare, and four MSF staff have been killed, while many have lost family members, and numerous have been injured.

"I am writing to you on behalf of Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to implore you to do everything within your power to ensure an immediate and sustained ceasefire in the Gaza Strip," Christou said in the letter to the UNSC.

Christou said a seven-day truce, after weeks of relentless violence, was a welcome respite for the people of Gaza. However, these seven days were not enough to organise the delivery of sufficient aid and essential supplies, to meet the immeasurable needs.

"We are very worried that the truce has ended, bringing a return to death and destruction," he said.

"Despite Israel's claims, its all-out assault is not being waged just on Hamas. It is being waged on all of Gaza and its people at any cost. Even wars have rules, but Israel is trading them in for its military doctrine based on disproportionality," he said.

Christou said Israel has shown a blatant and total disregard for the protection of Gaza's medical facilities, and hospitals have been turned into morgues and ruins.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has documented 181 attacks on healthcare that have led to 22 fatalities and 59 injuries of health workers on duty, MSF said.

"Medical staff, including our own, are utterly exhausted and in despair. They have had to amputate limbs from children suffering from severe burns without anaesthesia or sterilised surgical tools. Due to forcible evacuations by Israeli soldiers, some doctors have had to leave patients behind after facing the unimaginable choice between their lives or those of their patients. There is no justification for the atrocious attacks on healthcare," he said.

He said the activities of an international emergency team of MSF sent to Gaza have been severely limited due to the scale of casualties, destruction of infrastructure, lack of essential supplies such as fuel, and the ongoing insecurity.

"A sustained ceasefire is the only way to stop the killing of thousands of more civilians and allow for the scaled-up delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid", he said.

MSF also called for the establishment of an independent mechanism to oversee the adequate flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza and questioned the actions of world leaders.

"So far, world leaders, including permanent members of the Security Council, have been complicit, either by providing Israel with diplomatic cover, by supplying Israel with seemingly unconditional military assistance, or by failing to help stem the relentless bloodshed and atrocities being committed in Gaza," Christou alleged.

"It is time to choose whether the Council will continue issuing half-hearted calls for the respect of international law and the protection of civilians, or will fulfil its international peace and security mandate and exercise its full diplomatic leverage...We urge you to take action to uphold our shared humanity," he said.

"We did what we could. Remember us.' These are the words one of our emergency doctors wrote on a Gaza hospital whiteboard normally used for planning surgeries. When the guns fall silent and the true scale of devastation is revealed, will the Council and its members be able to say the same?" he added.

The death toll from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has surged to 15,523 since the start of the conflict on October 7, the Health Ministry in the besieged Palestinian enclave announced Sunday.