Israel causing 'humanitarian catastrophe' in Gaza - MSF

Doctors Without Borders - Médecins Sans Frontières - has criticised Israel for creating a "deliberate humanitarian catastrophe" in Gaza and accused it of trying to make aid conditional on forced displacement of Palestinians.

"We are witnessing, in real time, the creation of conditions for the eradication of Palestinian lives in Gaza," the medical charity, known by its French acronym MSF, said in a statement.

"Gaza has become a hell on earth for Palestinians."

Israel imposed an aid blockade on Gaza on 2 March after talks to prolong a 19 January ceasefire broke down after Israel resumed its attacks on Gaza.

The resulting shortages of food and medicine have aggravated an already dire situation in the Palestinian territory, although Israel has dismissed UN warnings that a potential famine looms.

MSF warned that its medical teams on the ground had "seen a 32% increase in the number of patients presenting with malnutrition over the past two weeks".

"Dwindling fuel stocks are limiting the ability to desalinate and distribute water," it said in its statement.

"Those health facilities that still function - already critically inadequate in number and capacity for the population - are still being attacked and are suffering from rapidly diminishing stocks of medications and other essential supplies."

MSF highlighted that its "teams in Gaza have received no supplies for 11 weeks and face critical shortages of essential medical items such as sterile compresses and sterile gloves".

The organisation flatly rejected a US proposal, backed by Israel, for the creation of a new foundation to lead aid distribution in Gaza, in an overhaul that will sideline the UN and existing aid organisations and essentially handing control to Israel.

"The US-Israel proposition to control the distribution of supplies under the guise of humanitarian aid raises grave humanitarian, ethical, security and legal concerns," MSF said.

"Making aid conditional on forced displacement and vetting of the population is another tool in the ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population," it added.

"MSF firmly rejects and condemns any plan that further reduces availability of aid and subjugates it to Israeli military occupation objectives."

The organisation called on the "UN, EU member states, and all those with influence over Israel" to "urgently use their political and economic leverage to stop the instrumentalisation of aid".

"Israeli's plan to instrumentalise aid is a cynical response to the very humanitarian crisis they created," MSF said.

"If they wished, Israel and its allies could lift the blockade today and let humanitarian aid reach all those in Gaza whose survival depends on it."