'Inhumane, Indefensible': MSF Calls For Ceasefire in Gaza in Open Letter to UN

Médecins Sans Frontières calls on the UN Security Council to step in and take action now.

MSF open letter to UNSC calls for sustained ceasefire in Gaza strip.

(Photo: AP/PTI, Altered by The Quint)

On a whiteboard in one of the hospitals under attack in Gaza, emergency doctors left a message for the world – "We did what we could. Remember us."

"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?" asks Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), a global humanitarian organisation, in an open letter to the United Nations Security Council.

The open letter, released on 4 December, calls for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, to stop the relentless attack on Palestinian civilians and for crucial humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

'The Situation is Getting Worse'

The letter outlines the current state of Gaza and draws attention to the collapse of the healthcare system in the war-torn region.

"The health system has collapsed. More than 15,000 people have been killed, half of whom are children, according to Gaza’s health authorities. That’s one out of every 200 people in Gaza. At least 1.7 million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations," reads the letter.

"These civilians have been forcibly ordered to move south, but Israel is also bombing that area. Nowhere is safe."

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)

A temporary ceasefire was called on 24 November, however it came to an end on 1 December, following which the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) resumed its attacks in the region, killing at least 175 people so far.

"Ahead of the truce, Our emergency team in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, has reported massive influxes of wounded after intense bombing. These strikes are also hitting overcrowded, squalid refugee camps, where people are barely surviving on the sparse humanitarian aid available. If the bombs do not get them, infectious diseases and starvation will," reads the letter.

The letter also underscores how difficult it has been to deliver medical aide in the region.

"Our medical teams in the West Bank also report attacks on health care with a surge in violence, persecution and harassment, in which over 220 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, either by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) or by Israeli settlers, according to the United Nations."

Speaking to the press before the release of the letter, Executive Director of MSF South Asia, Dr Farhat Mantoo, said, "The situation on the ground is worse now. (Right now) we have managed to bring in an international team (of medicos) on the ground working with our Palestinian colleagues, but in the southern part of Gaza."

"In the Northern part of Gaza, health facilities are virtually non-existent. Just a couple of days ago, one of our MSF supported hospitals was hit by a strike and we lost two more of our staff members."

Dr Farhat Mantoo, Executive Director, MSF South Asia

"Thus 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," it adds.

'Need Immediate and Sustained Ceasefire'

"A temporary ceasefire is not enough. The situation on the ground is getting worse, and that's why we are calling for a sustained ceasefire."

Dr Farhat Mantoo

Dr Mantoo added, "This open letter is not only aimed at the larger international community, but it is aimed at the world leaders, to push them to use every ounce of influence they have to bring a long term solution, a sustained humanitarian pause that would enable us to operate on the ground."

What are some key demands the letter puts forth?

• The establishment of an independent mechanism to oversee the adequate flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza.

• The implementation of secure and long-lasting medical evacuation routes to third countries for people suffering from severe injuries.

• In the short-term, the evacuation of these patients to Egypt through the Rafah crossing could be an option.

• Forcible displacement must stop now.

• Assaults on hospitals and medical staff must stop now.

• Restrictions on aid and the siege must stop now.

• Indiscriminate and relentless attacks must stop now.

"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 to convince the State of Israel that the death sentence it has handed the people of Gaza is inhumane, indefensible, and cannot continue to be carried out," reads the letter.