On the night of 26 May, after Israeli airstrikes hit a camp sheltering displaced people in a designated safe zone by Israel, 180 wounded people and 28 dead were recorded at the Trauma Stabilisation Point we support in Tal al Sultan, Gaza.
Most of the patients we treated had shrapnel wounds, fractures, traumatic injuries and burns.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) strongly denounces this bloody attack that comes just a few days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt all military operations in Rafah. We reiterate our urgent call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire.
While Israeli forces described this attack as precise with some civilians injured, the number of casualties resulting from these airstrikes shows otherwise.
“Women and children were among the people that were brought to the stabilisation point, and once again, civilians are paying the price of this war,” says Samuel Johann, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza.
“This Israeli attack on a populated camp in a so-called 'safe zone' in Rafah shows the complete disregard for the lives of civilians in Gaza,” says Johann.
“Though all the patients were stabilised and referred to field hospitals in Rafah, no single healthcare facility in Gaza can handle a mass casualty event such as this one. The health system has been decimated and cannot cope any longer,” says Johann.
