MSF statement: The EU fails people in Gaza again

16 July 2025 - European Union Foreign Ministers have once again refused to take substantial action to end the deliberate and systemic destruction of Palestinian lives in Gaza, making them complicit in the genocide that the Israeli authorities are committing.

While EU leaders issue misleading statements after their 15 July meeting on Gaza, and the EU High Representative Kaja Kallas claims that there are "positive signs" that aid will be delivered, Israel continues to bomb children seeking water, shoots people collecting food and continues to starve everyone else through its siege and collective punishment.

Israel could ensure Palestinian men, women and children have enough food, water and medicine tomorrow if it wished to, but instead it continues its stranglehold on the Strip. Meanwhile, as EU leaders fail to address the siege imposed by Israel, they also lack the courage and humanity to pressure the Israeli authorities to stop the daily killing of innocent people.

On 16 June, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) sent an open letter with a very clear message to EU leaders: The EU has the political, economic and diplomatic means of exerting real pressure on Israel to stop mass atrocities and to immediately open Gaza’s border crossings for aid. The people of Gaza cannot wait any longer; EU member states must urgently turn words into action to stop the deliberate erasure of Palestinians in Gaza.

MSF colleagues have worked tirelessly and under critical conditions for almost two years now; 12 of them have been killed by Israeli forces.

Our teams regularly receive patients with gunshot wounds, many who have been attacked at food distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Almost 800 people have been killed while trying to get food to survive at these distribution sites.

How many more lives have to be lost before the EU takes action? Which additional breaches of International Humanitarian Law need to happen before Israel’s atrocities against the people of Gaza are brought to an end?

Today at 3am, Israeli forces bombed tents of displaced people in Khan Younis as they further expand their operation in the area. Our colleague Hossni Al Naijar, was among those injured in the attack, while a baby in the tent next to his was killed. Shrapnel hit Hosni’s back, filling his lungs with blood. He was immediately taken to Nasser hospital but the lack of beds meant he had to be moved to the MSF Al Zawaida Field Hospital in Deir Al Balah for further treatment.

Two MSF colleagues were injured and one was killed in less than a month. Over the past 24 hours alone, Israeli forces have killed 93 Palestinians and injured 278 more in continued and relentless attacks across the Strip, according to the Ministry of Health. Every one of these numbers represents a life cut short, or forced to go through pain, suffering and loss. This must stop now.