MSF UK - Gaza panel discussion: ‘This is not only a medical crisis. It's a human disaster’  ​ 

MSF UK’s Executive Director Natalie Roberts joined Amnesty International UK Chief Executive Sacha Deshmukh for the live question and answer session, featuring speakers from both organisations as well as Al Jazeera’s Gaza Bureau Chief Wael al-Dahdouh and Palestinian journalist Yara Eid. 

MSF’s Deputy Medical Coordinator in Gaza, Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, sent a video message from Khan Younis. Dr Mughaisib said “The numbers show it clearly. Tens of thousands killed, thousands of children orphaned, nearly two million displaced, and with a health system which is barely standing. Still hospitals, health workers keep going, doing everything possible with very little.” He added “This is not only a medical crisis. It's a human disaster.” ​ ​ 

Updating the panel on the situation she witnessed in the Strip, MSF’s Project Coordinator Caroline Willemen, said “It is exactly as you see on TV. I entered knowing I would witness a genocide.” Caroline left Gaza City at the end of August after spending eight weeks there. She spoke about the consequences of the food blockade on her Palestinian colleagues and their patients, “I saw my own colleagues hungry. They were sometimes at work when they had not eaten for 24 hours. They also had to stand in line to get water at the end of the day. Wounds are not healing the way they should because patients are not getting the food the way they should.” 

MSF UK’s Executive Director Natalie Roberts said, “We’ve worked in Palestine for decades including Gaza. We don’t like to compare situations or diminish people’s situations, but Gaza is truly exceptional. The mass deliberate harm of civilians, being forced to leave your home and then being told to go somewhere you know is not safe…They are targeting hospitals, they are targeting water bases, everything you need to survive.” ​ Regarding the killing and detention of MSF staff in Gaza, Dr Roberts said: “12 of our colleagues have been killed with complete impunity…We’ve never received any acknowledgement about their lives, but if it was somewhere else, we’d have some kind of engagement. ​ ​ ​ 

“One of our doctors, Dr Mohamed Obeid has been taken into detention in Israel, he has lost a lot of weight and that's all the info we’ve been given. How is that acceptable? There have been no charges against him, but yet, he has been imprisoned.” ​ ​ 

Looking ahead to the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) main meetings, Natalie said “Our narrative next week is doctors can’t stop the genocide, but world leaders can. What is important is for all of us around the world is to really outline to our leaders what we want them to say.” ​ 

Please find a selection of stills and videos from the event attached. ​