Rafah, MSF's testimony: “We live constantly under attack”

«It was a very intense night in Rafah, the explosions continued incessantly, drones continue to be over our heads all the time». They are the words of Martina Marchiòmedical coordinator of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza. He sends them from Rafah, where the bombs continue to hit unabated. Here the Israeli army is continuing to attack the neighborhood of Tal al Sultan, in the north-west of Rafah. There is no longer a safe place for Palestinian civilians to take refuge. «The attacks are now dangerously close to the trauma stabilization center of Doctors Without Borders in Tal Al Sultan, where the wounded from the Israeli attack were treated all day yesterday. The staff who had to finish the night shift were stuck inside without being able to get out because the bombings, heavy artillery and gunfire are very very strong and even the staff who were supposed to go on shift were unable to do so so as not to put one's life at risk.”

«Tragic mistake», this is how the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had defined the bombs that fell on Sunday evening on the camp for displaced people, in an area that had been defined by the Israeli army as a “humanitarian area”. Palestinian civilians had been told to go there for refuge in case of an attack on Rafah. We saw the charred bodies, the other flames between the tents, the bodies of newborns without heads from the explosion. A horror that doesn't stop. Doctors Without Borders continues to strongly condemn this war once again: “We ask for an immediate ceasefire to be able to continue bringing assistance to the population, to be able to do our work.”

To make his voice heard even louder, the international organization sent a letter to president Giorgia Meloni signed by 18 Italian humanitarian workers, doctors, nurses, psychologists, logisticians, who have worked in the hell of Gaza or supported the MSF action from the West Bank or Egypt since the brutal attack by Hamas on 7 October. «The Israeli bombings have affected the population beyond measure. In Gaza, everything is missing: water, food, space, care. The healthcare system is collapsing and the disproportion between human needs and the ability to intervene is enormous. We live under attack, in the total annihilation of every rule of conduct of hostilities, while the hostages are still painfully far from their loved ones.” The Italian government is asked for a concrete and ambitious humanitarian initiative that supports five objectives:

1. Get a immediate and prolonged ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

2. Ensure the protection of civilians, interrupting all forms of support, including the sending of weapons, to military operations and the siege of Gaza and demanding full respect for international humanitarian law.

3. Ensure thehumanitarian assistance to the populationensuring support and safe and unconditional access to needed aid, including medical and food supplies to address the risk of famine.

4. Put an end to attacks against hospitals and healthcare facilities, which affect patients and medical staff and put the entire population at risk.

5. Facilitate the medical evacuations of wounded and patients requiring complex care not available in Gaza, without prejudice to their right of return.