Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is devastated to report the death of Bilal Okal, our colleague killed by Israeli forces in Jabalia, north Gaza, Palestine, along with 10 of his family members.

Bilal and his relatives, including his wife, seven children, sister and his elderly mother, were killed by an Israeli airstrike in December 2024. They had been sheltering in their building after being trapped in the area while it was under violent siege by Israeli forces. MSF lost all contact with Bilal on 1 December and despite all our attempts to get information about his situation, we only received confirmation of his death on 19 January 2025.

Bilal joined MSF as a hygiene agent in 2017 and he played a major role in supporting people in need of medical care when we resumed work at our clinic in Gaza City in April 2024. He was 37 years old. In this tragic moment, our thoughts are with Bilal’s family, friends and colleagues mourning his death.

When we last heard from Bilal, he was running out of food and water and was stuck in his home with his relatives. They had tried to leave Jabalia, but the bombings were so intense that it was unsafe to move. On 11 November, we learned from his brother that Bilal and his family were starving but were too scared to look for food or leave because anything that moved got shot.

MSF strongly condemns the killing of Bilal and his family in their home by Israeli forces. We can only imagine the terror they faced while they were trapped under siege and horrendous violence before they were killed. Bilal is the ninth MSF colleague to be killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war.

All over the Strip, people are still suffering and families continue to look for their missing relatives whom they fear have been killed. Israel’s all-out war on Gaza has killed over 46,700 people, including 18,000 children and injured more than 110,000, while over 10,000 people are still missing.